This Game Called Life

[14] Guild

A week has passed since the previous unpleasant encounter with Kevin, and we haven't seen him ever since. And apparently Enju managed to blackmail about 10,000 gold from him, which was quite a lot by our newbie standard, but after several meals inside this game (does solve your hunger in real life), I realised the money we had was just evaporating. 

"Enju. Could you not eat 3 lamb skewers at once?" I stared at her, with dead fish eyes. As I threw a quick glance around in the rowdy tavern, and already I sense several pair of eyes pointing towards us.

"*&^&#$%#%!" Enju mumbled.

Whatever...

I sighed. Well, aside from the huge pile of gold we got from that time, we also made a few coins and levelled up a few times by fighting monster on our own, just the two of us. But neither of those gains was close to enough.

"Enju, I been thinking..." My voice trailed off.

"What-" Enju swallowed the last skewer, and pounded her chest several times, "what is it?"

"Well, I am thinking at this rate, the two of us are going to get nowhere."

"True." she said, as she started munching on a corn skewer. 

"I am thinking about joining a guild."

Enju stopped munching and commented for a second:

"Guild huh?..." and just like that, she went right back to munching.

"Yeah, I did a little search myself on the internet and it says in this world there is one guild that will take in low level players like us."

"What guild is that?" Enju stopped munching again.

"It's called Legionnaire, and it's the largest guild in this world with just over a million members. They even has it's very own city." I said, with a glitter of excitement shivering up my bones. 

"Sounds nice to me."

"Yeah, and one of their branch guild hall is located here! We need to go check it out!" I said, getting up and about to leave.

"Wait Riga! Let me finish! There is still so many I haven't finished!" Enju protested.

I twisted my lip.

"If I don't eat them, they are all going to be wasted!"

I counted at least another 20 skewers.

With a look that I am already dead inside, I sat back down again. Waiting...

***

"I am so FULL! Carry me Riga!" Enju said dizzily as she ran into my shoulder. 

"No. I told you not to eat so much. Not my problem." I said, as the two of us walked under the sun and stopped in front of a certain building.

"This should be it." I scanned ahead. It was a giant 3 story stone building shaped in a fortress, at the front was a pair of wooden gates opening outwards. And at each side of the gate stood a guard dressed in knight's armour. 

As we approached, the guards simply let us pass by, and once inside the fortress, there was about half a hundred players, scattered in groups and chatting around. And at the end, I stopped what appears to be a reception desk, with a man in Roman armour just sitting there, taking in questions.

"We should go ask him." I said. As we got to the table, I cleared my throat and asked the man:

"This is the Legionnaire guild hall right?" 

"You came to the right place buddy! Is that your girl friend there?" He glanced at Enju.

"No." I hastily replied. "She's my friend."

"Oh, ok. So what brings you here today bud?"

"I am looking forward to joining the guild." I looked back to Enju who gave me a nod of approval. "Both of us actually."

The man shot me a menacing look, and for a moment I thought I did something wrong, like I was the one caused the fall of Rome. Then all of a sudden his expression loosened again, and he burst out chuckling:

"Just messing with you bud. You both came to the right place! HAHAHA!"

"Hahaha..." I managed a nervous chuckle.

"Alright," he produced a set of paper from behind the counter.

"Sigh this, and you're granted a trainee membership of the guild."

"Trainee membership?"

"That's right. In order to gain full membership, you must prove your worth to the legion, and serve a certain period of time."

"How long will that be exactly?"

"1 month. Or you done a major deed for the guild, but that one almost never happens." he yawned.

"Thanks..." I said with nervous smile, I held up the contract. And the moment I did, the parchment contract reappeared in front of me, in the form of a window. As I scrolled to the bottom there was a signature blank. And when I moved my finger along the screen, a black line appeared.

Oh. So that's how it worked

Fascinated at the new mechanics, then flustered from embarrassment, I quickly sighed the contract on the screen with my finger. Then passed on the parchment contract to Enju. By the time she was done, she handed the contract back to the reception guy again.

"Ok, now that you both sighed, it's time to get packing for your journey."

"To where?" I asked curiously, as I have done no researched beyond this point.

"A fort. Can't remember the name." the guy shrugged. "But I guarantee you, it will be fun!"

Why do I have a bad feeling about this already?

Q: Would you go solo or join a guild in a RPG game?