The Adventurer's guild was painfully crowded for Shiina. She'd assumed that since Delilah was taking them there early there wouldn't be a big group. That was a huge mistake. The room was full of parties gathered in their fours and fives, all eating breakfast while servers ran back and forth from the taverns across the way.

  "You sure you don't want anything more?" Delilah asked. "Breakfast is an important meal. And we might not get to eat again depending on the jobs available." The half elf had a spread to match her words. Fried eggs on toast, boiled eggs, and a bowl of porridge with dried fruits.

  "I mean, I already had my weekly meal yesterday," Shiina said as she cut into her own small omelette. "This is just to be polite." She motioned to the crowd. "Is the place usually this crowded? It feels more like a tavern than a guild house."

  Delilah nodded. "That's what I heard. The best jobs all come in during the morning, so everyone wants to be here to offer their services. After the first thirty minutes it's all just dungeon delving and emergency jobs. So to keep there from being a fight to get in the door the guild just lets people in early and allows the taverns to serve the members."

  "Hm..." Shiina scanned the room. "But we need a party."

  "Yeah..." Delilah sighed. "We have to hope someone is looking for help. Either that or network with the people who are left behind after the rush."

  Shiina grimaced, but she didn't have a better plan. Instead she wolfed down the omelet, and shifted into a backpack form. She didn't like to stand out.

  After a bit more waiting the guildmaster walked to the front counter and cleared his throat. The conversations died out as the room turned to the old dwarf.

  "I imagine most of you have heard some of this already, but I'm afraid I have to officially announce both the Blank Tome Training Dungeon, and the Blue Spike Dungeon are both closed due to instability. Some damn fool tried to open up the Blank Tome Dungeon. We lost two good adventurers putting him down. The Blue Spike Dungeon was sabotaged last night by parties unknown. We've got investigators already looking into it."

  The announcements sent a ripple of surprise and uncertainty through the crowd. Shiina was confused as well. Who would sabotage a dungeon? That's where adventurers made their money!

  The man waited a moment before holding up a hand for silence. "Because of the sudden attacks on our livelihood, I'm afraid we've had to shut down all the dungeons." There was a rumbling of disapproval which the Guild Master shut down with a slap on the desk. "Look I don't like it either, but we need to make sure the remaining dungeons stay safe or the whole town is doomed. Which means the guild needs to guard and inspect every single dungeon until we figure out what the hell is going on."

  There was another long moment for the muttering to subside, before the Guild Master finished. "Fortunately we've got additional work for skilled adventurers. We'll start posting missions now. Thank you for your patience."

  The lobby became a riot of activity and Shiina instinctively froze. Delilah however sprang into action, grabbing her like a real backpack and heading into the fray. The morning rush had begun.

  First at the board were the established teams. They quickly grabbed their jobs and either went into negotiations or filed out. Then came the newer groups, looking over the jobs posted to see if they were a good fit.

  Delilah maneuvered around the edge of that crowd, looking and listening for opportunity.

  First a group of young men without any casters : "Excuse me, you need a healer?"

  "Thanks, but not really. We're doing caravan duty, so healing is part of the contract."

  After that a team asking about a healer : "I'm a copper tier, level 14 healer, is that okay?"

  "Sorry we need someone over 16. We wouldn't be able to keep you safe."

  Shiina's hopes were raised when another group approached them. "You're a support mage right? Can you also do attack spells?"

  "Not effectively. I don't have the personality for it."

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  "Darn. Well, good luck searching."

  Finally a trio of women. "Do you need a healer or a rogue?"

  "I don't think you'd be a good fit for our group." They stalked off after glaring at Delilah.

  As the final crew walked away Shiina popped a little out of her backpack 'body.' "What was that about? They act like we insulted them. Did they notice me?"

  "It's probably because I'm a half elf." Delilah sighed. "We have a reputation of being loose women."

  "Wait, people believe that tripe?" Shiina shifted uncomfortably. "I thought that was just old nonsense from the dark ages. Like the whole thing about there being no dwarf women."

  Delilah shook her head. "It's complicated. Anyway, I guess there weren't any good groups today."

  "Well there's always tomorrow." Shiina shivered a little. "Hopefully the crowd isn't as bad then. I'll try to help out more then"

  Delilah carried her back to their table and set her down with a pat on the 'head'. "I'm afraid you'll just have to get used to that. Some places are crowded."

  "I don't know how you people can stand it," Shiina leaned herself against a table leg. "There's just so many things happening!"

  "Honestly I'm not entirely used to it myself. It's worse than the crush at the harvest festival back home." Delilah sighed again. "Do you mind waiting here? It's possible someone will come in late needing healing services."

  "I'm good at waiting," Shiina replied cheerfully.

  The next few hours were actually interesting, watching people wander in and out of the guild on business. There were so many moving parts to human society. And this was a small city! Apparently Highcastle was ten times the size of this town.

  Delilah was less fond of waiting it seemed. She started nursing a full pot of tea, and moved on to doing strange calculations and looking over what was probably her research book. It was strange how restless people could be. It was terrible for stealth.

  Her observations were interrupted by someone slamming through the door. "Healer! We need a healer, quickly!"

  Delilah jumped out of her chair and fumbled around with her book. Shiina reached out, grabbed the tome, and gave her a grin and a shh gesture. It'd be easier to get the job as a solo member. And besides, Shiina was looking for a good surprise off this.

  The half elf looked confused, but nodded and lifted Shiina onto her shoulders before scurrying over to the man. There was another trio there, but they looked similarly new. "What's the problem," Delilah asked.

  The man looked between the two groups. "Either of you Herbalists? We had a run in with a Wyvern pack, and our healer almost burned himself out just curing the poison. We need someone to treat the damage that's already been done."

  "I'm an Apprentice rank Herbalist," Delilah said. "And they're low level wyverns right? So you'll want puca leaves. I have some, though I'll need to be compensated for their use."

  The other party's healer sighed. "I'm also, Apprentice rank, but I don't have puca leaves on me. I'd need to buy some."

  The man nodded. "Looks like you got the job missy. 100 gold plus expenses?"

  "Sure!" Delilah nodded.

  A guild orderly moved in from the side. "I've witnessed. Please sign here." Delilah and the man, Yagi, signed their names quickly. The man handed over the collateral, then turned and started out of the guild. "Can you ride?"

  "A little," Delilah said. "Nothing fancy."

  "Good. I've got a spare horse." The man led them to two horses tied out front. "We're at a small mine an hour out of town. We need to get the injured treated before some monster comes up and catches us with our pants down."

  "Right." Delilah managed to mount with only a little difficulty. Though it probably looked more impressive for the people who didn't know that Shiina shifted her weight to help.

  As they began riding towards the city gate Delilah shifted over to whisper to Shiina, "Shouldn't you show yourself soon?"

  "What and ruin the surprise? Nah. Don't worry about it, they're paying for one person so they won't get mad."

  "But when they see me pulling stuff out of my pouches instead of the backpack..."

  Shiina considered that. "True. Hey, why don't you use the bag of holding. Just say what you're looking for and I'll dig it out and hand it to you."

  "This is a lot of effort for a prank," Delilah muttered.

  "It'll be fun! Trust me." Shiina grinned. A whole lot of fun. Time to shock people who weren't newbies.

  The skill testing system is still kinda weird to me. Mali said it was important to prove I can do things at a certain level. Which I suppose I understand. But these skill ranks only work on this chunk of the continent! Apparently every guild has different skills and different ranks for them. Apprentice rank might be copper rank somewhere else. Or first tier or something.

  Some skills you can transfer over, with a guild's permission. Trapfinding is the same everywhere. But skills like Herbalism only give you access to local guidebooks, not the rank. It's all so confusing.

  I asked Mali why people didn't just check the skills of the people they were hiring directly. She said that wouldn't work if you needed something done fast. I suppose that is true. Still I hope I don't have to prove my skills over and over. Or at least there's not any more written tests. Everyone complains about my penmanship but they won't let me mimic the pen.