Demonia wasn’t considered a rge city by most people. From Elodie’s experience living in a very rural vilge where everyone knew everyone and all their business, Demonia was a bustling metropolis. All sorts of people could be found walking the streets. The western reaches of Jibraltia where Crimson Valley resided was known for having mostly human settlements. Even in Havensfeld it was uncommon to run across anything other than a human.
Here though, just stepping onto the ptform and making her way to exit the station Elodie could see plenty of felyns, canyns, elves, even a singur orc standing head and shoulders above the crowd. People walked around in various types of outfits as well. There were the simply dressed borers and craftsmen, finely dressed merchants, and a few individuals walking around in various types of armor.
Elodie took a deep breath thinking about the opportunities she’d be afforded here, and promptly choked on the smell of smoke and smog. She spent a couple minutes trying to get her coughing under control while people around her gave her a wide berth.
Finally getting her breathing under control, Elodie stood up straight and made her way through the crowd. She was surprised by the number of people out and about. It was getting fairly te. By this time back home everyone would be at home eating dinner with their families. Guess the big city was going to be a lot more different than she’d thought. She hoped she could adapt quickly enough.
Stepping out of the station and onto the bustling street, Elodie noticed the lighthouse rising like a giant from the far side of the city. It was fshing a dull, white light that indicated all was well. She hoped to never see it fshing yellow, or gods forbid red. The lighthouse operated as a warning system to the city that had grown up around the dungeon. White light indicated the dungeon was operating normally. Yellow would indicate a dungeon surge, where higher ranked monsters from lower floors were swarming up to higher floors. Most people close to the dungeon would be encouraged to evacuate and all delvers were on call to protect the city or assist in the dungeon. Red was for a dungeon break where monsters escaped from the dungeon. Evacuation was mandatory for all citizens and delvers, city guards, and soldiers were called on to stem the flow of monsters and limit the destruction they’d wreak.
Fortunately those kinds of things happened only rarely. The dungeon here hadn’t had a surge in over ten years, and the st dungeon break in Demonia had been almost a century ago. The guild was very good about encouraging parties to work the dungeon without disrupting it enough to sh out.
The lighthouse marked the entrance to the dungeon, and the guildhall should be fairly close by. So, Elodie headed off into the city toward the lighthouse and her future. She could have spent a few coins and paid for a rickshaw or even a small buggy to take her there, but Elodie was used to walking and it would give her time to take in the sights of the big city.
Directly across the street from the station was an impressive building. It was only two stories tall, but obviously raised by an earth mage as there were no seams to indicate blocks of stone. It was wide though, stretching across several city blocks. There were steps leading up to the grand entrance which was fnked by several tall columns. On either side of the steps y a pair of sphinxes. Atop the entrance stood a statue of Anahet, the goddess of learning and wisdom. ‘Demonia Library’ was carved into the stone beneath her feet in letters a half meter tall.
Elodie had never seen such a vast repository of knowledge. The closest thing to a library they had in Crimson Valley had been the schoolhouse’s collection of books. The number of books and scrolls the Demonia library must contain had to reach into the hundreds of thousands or maybe more. It was awe inspiring even to someone like Elodie who didn’t have a lot of use for book learning. Maybe she’d check it out during some free time after she got settled.
It’s not that Elodie was dumb or looked down on those that learned through reading. Her practical skills were just better learned through experience than through reading. She actually enjoyed a good book. She hadn’t been willing to spend precious coins on them before and had read through the books in the schoolhouse several times though.
Elodie turned toward the lighthouse in the distance and headed down the street. There were many more marvels along the way. A rge market square was closing up for the day as she passed through it. Merchants were packing their colorful stalls while shopkeepers in the permanent locations on the outer edge locked up their stores. There were so many shops and stalls selling everything from fruit to armor to potions. And this wasn’t even the main market for Demonia, just one of the smaller neighborhood markets scattered throughout the city.
Most of the nobles and wealthy merchants owned homes in the opposite direction from where she was headed. They wanted to be far away from the dungeon in case of a break. Even so, the houses and apartments she passed were all a much better quality than she had seen except in the more wealthy districts of Havensfeld.
As she finally neared the dungeon the buildings changed again. Many of the buildings were mage raised stone surrounded by iron fences and barred windows, all probably magically reinforced. The houses were smaller and often pressed together to share walls. The shops she saw seemed more geared toward delvers as well. There were several bcksmiths, fletchers, and assorted arms dealers. Alchemists and apothecaries were prevalent as well. And taverns were everywhere. You couldn’t swing a chiko without hitting some kind of bar, pub, or tavern.
The guildhall stood close enough to the lighthouse that they might as well be connected. One wing of the guildhall hugged the lighthouse’s wall for three stories, not quite halfway up the lighthouse. The two wings of the guildhall stretched about a block each direction. They were utilitarian and bare except for barred windows set evenly across their faces. Many had lights shining out of them, while about a third were darkened.
The central part of the guildhall towered over the wings as it reached up into the sky for five stories and then was capped by the old bell tower that had been converted to the more modern dungeon arm used today. Its fa?ade was more ornate with reliefs of warriors battling all variety of monsters running around the top floors and tower. A small set of steps led up to the entrance.
The entrance to the guildhall was fnked by a pair of statues on tall pedestals. On the right stood Arik with his golden spear and dark robes. The gods had welcomed him as the first demigod when he had captured the first dungeon core. On the left stood Roran with her duel swords and ancient armor. She was the first S-ranked delver and had also been decred a demigod after defeating Kamsis the god of war in order to put a stop to the war between Jibraltia and the Ethellian Empire. They were the standard guardians in front of guildhalls. All across Jibraltia at least. Elodie wasn’t sure if the nations that used to make up the Ethellian Empire would want statues of Roran in front of their guildhalls.
Elodie reached out and ran a hand over the feet of Roran for luck. She couldn’t reach much higher and didn’t want to get in trouble anyways. She sent up a silent prayer that Roran would keep an eye on her and guide her in her days to come. Growing up, stories of Roran had always been her favorite. She’d looked up to the demigod and often prayed to her for luck or protection.
She took a deep breath and then forced herself to mount the steps up to the guildhall. The tall, steel reinforced doors were still open, so Elodie had hopefully made it in time to register with the guild and find some lodging in the barracks. At least for tonight.
As she entered the guildhall she was greeted by a rge open room with a few benches and sofas scattered around. On the far side of the room were a line of windows along a counter with several clerks stationed behind them. There were a few signs hanging over sets of windows to direct you toward the service needed.
Elodie headed to the lone clerk sitting at the registration window. She was a tall, lithe felyn woman. Her cat ears twitched on her head as Elodie drew nearer. Her eyes lit up and a welcoming smile spread across her face. “Welcome to the Demonia Guildhall. My name is Delih, what can I do for you?”
“Hi, Delih. I’m here to—”
Delih put up her hand to halt Elodie before she leaned around her to yell at someone, “Arin! Don’t you bring that in here. I swear to gods I will…” she trailed off with a growl. Elodie turned around to see a rge sheepish looking man frozen in his tracks trying to sneak through the guildhall to the east wing. In his hands was an obscenely rge bottle of liquor.
“B-but, Delih. I was just gonna—”
“No,” she cut him off. “Not after the st time. The guildmaster specifically told you not to drink in the guildhall anymore. You’re still paying off the damages from the st time. If you want to drink that, take it somewhere else.”
By now the rest of the room had quieted down to watch the exchange. People had even started to drift in from the two wings of the guildhall to see the commotion. Arin slowly backed his way away from the east wing. He gave a nervous chuckle and then turned and walked as fast as he could out of the front doors.
Apparently Delih may look like a cute ingénue, but she was anything but. Elodie made a mental note not to get on her bad side. Delih turned back to Elodie, “Now, where were we? Oh, right. What can I do for you, dear?”
“H-hi. I’m here to register with the guild?” Elodie’s voice trailed off into a question at the end out of nervousness.
“Of course. Let me just grab the necessary paperwork you’ll need to fill out.” Delih turned away and rummaged through some drawers for a minute, pulling out various papers and organizing them into a stack. She snapped it all onto a clipboard, turned around and grabbed a pen before sliding the whole thing across the counter to Elodie. “Just fill this out and bring it back up. Best hurry up though, the counter closes in twenty minutes and then you’ll have to come back tomorrow.”
“Thanks,” Elodie said. She took the clipboard and made her way to a seat so she could fill everything out. She had no idea that just registering for the guild would involve so much paperwork. Friggin bureaucracy.
Elodie worked as quickly as she could, keeping an eye on the clock above the clerks’ counter. Most of it was liability and nondisclosure forms. Some of it was medical records. Only one small sheet was actually interested in what she was doing at the guild. It didn’t ask for her css, that was a private matter, but it did ask for her role.
As a padin she could easily fit into either a damage dealer or a tank role. She cked the healing skills to be able to fit into the healer role, but that could change as she leveled up. She was most comfortable with the idea of being the damage dealer, that’s where her strengths lie if she was honest. But, she also wanted to keep as many options open as she could. Tanks could be more offensively inclined than defensively if done right. She indicated that she would be willing to take on either role.
Eighteen minutes ter, Elodie finished the st of her stack of paperwork and rushed to the counter. Delih gave her a sly smirk as she took her clipboard back. “Cutting it a little close.”
Elodie didn’t say anything. She sagged against the counter and hoped that everything was in order so she could stay in the barracks tonight and not have to hunt down a hotel she could afford. Staying in the barracks would be automatically deducted from any earnings she brought back from the dungeon, so she wouldn’t actually need to pay anything up front.
Delih shuffled the papers back into order, tapped them together to straighten the edges, and slid them into a folder. “Now, we’ve got you all registered. Let’s see if we can get your cute little butt into one of the barracks for tonight. First thing tomorrow morning you come see me and I’ll help set you up for finding a party or finding some solo work you can do. Ok?”
Elodie nodded her head, “Sounds good. Thank you.” She slumped in relief.
“No problem, dear.” She smiled kindly at Elodie. Delih gave her directions to the barracks room she’d be staying in tonight and handed her bnkets for a bed. Elodie thanked her again and headed off to the third floor of the east wing. Apparently the east wing was for the barracks, while the west wing was for the more expensive individual rooms. At least from the second floors and up. The ground floors were where the training rooms were in the east wing, and the mess hall and meeting rooms were in the west wing.
The barracks room lights were already off when she stepped in. She did her best to find an empty bed. It was fairly easy as the barracks was mostly empty. It looked like only a few beds were taken while most of them were still bare. Each bunk was made up of a bed and a chest at the foot of the bed for you to put your things inside to keep people from ‘borrowing’ things. Thankfully she had her storage ring and wouldn’t need to worry about that.
Elodie pulled some night clothes out of her storage ring and quickly changed. She y down in one of the beds far from the door. She didn’t want to be woken up by people coming in ter.
Just as she was about to drift off to sleep she heard quiet whispering from the only two other people in the barracks with her. They were closer to the middle of the room, but far enough away that Elodie couldn’t make out what they were saying.
The voices quieted down after a few minutes. Then there was a quiet squeaking, creaking noise. It started off just a creak here, a squeak there. Then it found a steady rhythm. Surely they weren’t doing what she thought they were doing. In the barracks? Where anyone could come in and see? Where people like her could hear them because she was most definitely not asleep yet?
And then she heard the first quiet moans. Fuck! They really were. Why was this turning her on so much? She felt herself growing wetter. Her clit throbbed. She couldn’t help herself. If they didn’t care…or maybe they wanted her to hear them? To see them? The idea excited her even more and she couldn’t help it as she reached down and pinched her nipple.
As the couple a few beds away continued in their muted fucking, Elodie reached down between her legs and began quickly circling her clit with her other hand. She did her best to keep her breathing quiet as she quickly climbed toward her release.
A few minutes ter, one of the partners cried out, but it was quickly muffled. Like the other person had spped their hand over their mouth. That was all it took to send Elodie over the edge herself.
She turned her head to bury her face in her pillow to hide her own moans and heavy breathing. When she finally came down from her high she turned over on her side, closed her exhausted eyes, and fell instantly asleep.
