An Unwelcome Visitor

His pulse spiked even more as a voice entered his ears. “Guild Master sent me.” The spike of panic dropped, recognising the harsh voice. Freeing his shoulder, he took a few steps out and turned to look.

Clive. In his characteristic pitch-black armour, not a single bead of sweat on his head and a casual posture. “Clive… is something wrong?”

“Guild meeting. Guild Master wants your attendance.”

“A meeting? With no warning?” Joseph eyed Clive suspiciously.

“A bastard showed up, no choice.”

With a weary, almost exasperated sigh, Joseph gave in and headed back.

As he travelled, the conflicted feelings of having not even gained a level yet hit him—requirements were climbing sharply— but that was fine, he would just have to find a higher-level area soon.

Back at the manor, he headed straight through the doors and into the tense, people-filled room. Han and the others stood behind Osric, who was seated at the end of the dining table. At the opposite end sat a stranger radiating sweat-slick smugness.

“Well, Guild Master Osric,” the man drawled, “your ‘member’ arrived at last. Your guild never fails to disappoint with its lack of manners.”

Brolin bristled, only to have Duranta’s hand clamp his shoulder. He grumbled anyway. “Damn weasel… you showed up unannounced.”

The man sniffed. “Since you’ve scraped up a few street rats, shall I assume you won’t be embarrassing yourselves in the contest this year? Your previous attempts were… pathetic to say the least.”

Osric’s smile didn’t waver, though the room’s temperature rose. “Now, Chancellor. We’ve always been proud of our juniors’ performances. I ask you please don’t make light of the tremendous effort they each put in.”

The Chancellor looked ready to retort, but a bead of sweat trickled down his head instead. Clive’s void-like eyes locked on him from beside Osric, a wordless command to keep silent. “Hmph.”

“And no, we hadn’t planned to participate. They are still new, so we were going to abstain and let them get more familiar with it all first. Furthermore they’re l—”

“Please wait, Guild Master.” Han’s voice cut cleanly but respectfully.

The Chancellor smirked, his fingers fiddling with a ring under the table as everyone’s eyes turned to him. “Heh. Fallen so far you let a street rat overrule you?”

Osric ignored him and looked to Han. “Yes, Han?”

“Guild Master, we’d like the opportunity to compete. From what you told me, I think we’re ready and can handle it.”

Osric studied Han’s eyes for a slow beat. “Are you sure? I told you the basics last night, but not the risks. It’s a harsh competition. Death isn’t uncommon. You should really consid—”

“I believe in our strength,” Han said simply. “Please let us try.”

Osric exhaled. “Very well. You heard him, Chancellor. The juniors will compete.”

“Hmph! Fine. Prepare a few more graves in that charming little ruin you call a village—sounds like you’ll need them. Here.” He flung a sealed letter across the table and stalked out, pausing only to pin Han with a petty, lingering glare.

When the door clicked shut, Osric set the letter down and rose. “Everyone, we’ll be participating in this year’s junior guild member competition. Please support them over the next few days while I prepare travel and lodging.”

“Yes, Guild Master,” the veterans replied, almost in unison. Whatever else the guild lacked, respect for Osric wasn’t one of them.

As Osric left to plan, the room broke apart into smaller currents. Han gathered Joseph, Tokko, Che, and Logan to the side and began outlining exactly what he’d just signed them up for.

“So, this competition is a contest between all the guilds in the kingdom’s junior members. It’s basically a talent show where we fight against each other and complete challenges in order to show which guild deserves more or less resources given out by the kingdom.”

Che’s face scrunched up a bit. “That’s a little barbaric, no?”

Han’s face swayed, split on his feelings.

“For this place, it’s pretty common. Normally, our guild either doesn’t participate, the members leave after a bad performance, or… they get killed…” The mood turned sour, as Han tried to lift it back up. “

“But we will be different. We are all much stronger than previous members of our age, and I firmly believe we will prevail against those larger guilds and get the top spot.

Not only will it give us rewards and fame, but also help the guild, giving us less tax, better resources, more budget. We owe it to them for taking us in.”

Che and Logan were on board since they trusted Han completely. Joseph, however, was a little sceptical.

“Han… we’ve literally only been leveling for like a month, maybe a bit more. How are we anywhere near the other people from this world that have had years to train?” Tokko nodded by his side, while the other 2 seemed interested as well but trusted Han anyways.

“Well… good point. I guess I should explain. I’ve already had a chat with the Guild Master, who told me most of this information.

As you said, compared to us, we are up against people who have been training and leveling since they were kids, we’ve had a mere month… but we are different.”

Joseph’s ears perked up, he could feel new, juicy information coming.

“As you all know, we came through the dungeon from our world that doesn’t have any of this, system, levels, monsters, magic, that isn’t the first time. As such, it is well known the system gives us some bonuses.

You may not realize this, but we level much faster than anyone from this world. We also get skills easier as well, for a time at least.

Most commoners between in their early adulthood are usually level five to twenty, with the average level being around fifteen. Those of noble blood, or those with access to resources and training, will on average be level twenty to thirty. Only the truly talented reach above thirty in their early-mid 20’s.”

They all looked to each other, the information shocking as they had all rapidly advanced way above the average already.

“That’s partly why we chose this guild. The Guild Master’s a good guy, he knows a lot about what it means to be ‘lost’ and all that comes with it. While at some other guilds, we may have been treated like cheaters, outsiders, or even worse…” Han’s thoughts trailed off as a bad memory popped up momentarily.

“But here they care. He’s set us all up with identities, gotten us all in the kingdom’s registry and even paid the necessary tax for our citizenships. That is why we will win.”

“Because we have a cheat?” Joseph said dryly. Han smiled, not denying it. “Because we need to pay back their kindness.” Che and Logan nodded; Joseph rolled his eyes but also didn’t retort, while Tokko showed a tinge of enthusiasm to help.

“The people we’ll be up against will not be normal people, they will be elites of each guilds new generation, but the competition limits the levels to only those below 35, or between the ages of 16 and 25 to keep things fair.

The kingdom doesn’t want older members crippling the next generation, but also understands some people join guilds later in life and doesn’t punish younger members from being too talented. Hence the age limit, and level limit being either or.”

Han’s gaze lingered on Joseph and Logan. “You two should both be clear to participate. Logan, so long as you don’t go above 35, you’re good since you’re already above the age limit, and Joseph… please try not to go too high, I can’t guarantee they won’t disqualify if you do.”

They both nodded, Logan especially who smiled since he is by far the oldest one, the only who falls outside the age limits at 34. Meanwhile Han just barely complies at 25 exactly, with Che and Joseph at 21 and 22 respectively, while Tokko was very safe at 19.

“It’s unlikely any other ‘lost’ are there, … many guilds really do not treat them well, but we can’t rule it out completely.

But don’t think we’ll have this advantage permanently. You should have noticed already—the speed of leveling is drastically slowing down.

Our levels have now reached the same as those of our age, so we’re starting to experience what it’s normally like.”

Joseph’s eyes focused upon hearing that, realising why despite being in a harder area the levels are that much slower. Taking a deep breath Han, looked over them. “That’s the gist of it, any questions?”

Joseph immediately spoke up first. “We may have the level and skill advantage but how much is 2-3 levels going to make considering their actual experience fighting.”

Han nodded. “Fair point, that is true. They will most certainly be more technique complete than us, which is why we need to avoid drawn-out, technical fights and lean on our advantage to end it quickly.”

Logan raised his hand next, Han nodding his way. “What’s the rules like, Cap? Anything to note?”

“Nothing special besides purposeful killing isn’t allowed, but the rules also aren’t fully stated yet, we’ll find most of them out closer to the time.”

Che’s face went tense and spoke. “So… people will die?”

With a sombre nod from Han, she went silent.

With a few other light questions, they separated to prepare for the upcoming event. Immediately heading back out to hunt, Joseph had a hard limit of level 40 from Han. Standing on the hill, Joseph watched as Tokko went ahead into the forest on her own.

Before he went himself, he tried another spirit summoning attempt, since its timer had ended. ‘It sucks being limited to a single attempt per day, hopefully the cooldown will decrease as it ranks-up… if it even can.’

Just like last time, the winds surged, and the magic circle condensed to form a portal. A spirit emerged. Unlike his previous attempts—which had all been animal forms such as the bird, a porcupine, and a panda—this one was humanoid. He didn’t know if that meant anything, but he immediately noticed the element surrounding it.

The bird had clearly been wind, the porcupine earth, and the panda elementless. This one had a green, nature-like aura, but not quite the same as wind—slightly brighter, flecked with gold.

When the spirit fully formed and was able to move, it looked around curiously, ignoring Joseph’s presence entirely.