"Those fur-coat guys," I started.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "The Hunting Raids," she supplied.

I rolled my hand in the air. "Yeah, them," I tilted the cup to my face to take a bigger gulp. Man, this was growing on me. It's a miracle I was still sane and not seeing red. "Are they constantly attacking people and stealing from them?"

The woman stuck her bottom lip out. "They're a useful scouting party when they're not out there terrorizing the town," she said. "Since they got a new Captain, it's been harder to keep them in check, especially when they've been amassing huge numbers by the day."

Was this the quest? Was I supposed to be uprooting this rabid organization? And what's a scouting party? I was sure those didn't exist back when this was still a game. We're either adventurers or not.

"But we can manage," the woman sniffed and drained her cup. That fast? "They are mostly easier to steer back to the right direction if we remind them where they stand and what is bound to happen should they fail to abide by Mystriae and the Empire's rules."

Oh, it's not a quest. Still, to think that they would have decapitated me and people would just say it's a mistake on the Hunting Raid's part. Wow.

Before I could fully resign from this grim conversation, I scratched the side of my cheek. The cut on my other one still stung, though I wasn't sure if it stopped bleeding or if it ever would. The pain was still there, though. "And you mentioned this...dragna-something," I tilted my head to one side. "What is it?"

"Dragnasand—the most powerful guild in the Central Tower. We're directly under the flagship of the Central Empire and aim to keep the forces of the netherside at bay," the woman explained.

I bobbed my head. Those sounded familiar, so all good. "And your party?" I asked. "You're part of it?"

The woman rolled her shoulders. "Not to brag, but not only are we part of it, we're the head party that we don't have a separate name," she said. "We carry the very name of our guild. We are known as the Dragnasand Knights."

"That's right," a different voice rang from behind us. I turned and came face to face with a creature that didn't make sense. It was a dragon, but it stood on two feet with human-like appendages apart from the presence of scales, claws, wings, and tails. Slitted yellow eyes trained towards me. "Rare of you to bring a friend, Mirani."

The woman, Mirani, scoffed. "That's none of your business, Valren," she said to the person with bright, yellow scales. She eyed my cup. I've yet to reach half. She jerked her chin towards another person behind the one who spoke. "Nice to see you, Yaora. Found some good metals lately?"

"No," the second newcomer said, dropping into the stool next to me. This one had green scales. They looked and probably felt like the jade stones my grandmother used to have on the altar back when I was a child visiting the province. One nod at the fox-headed person behind the counter sent them scurrying. A regular, then. "Damned patrol taking up all my time. Tell Cavya to lessen my time if he wants good weapons to last us in Riekhallow."

"Why not tell him yourself, Yaora?" another female voice joined the cacophony. A woman with similar albeit heavier armor than Mirani said. Unlike Mirani, she wore a dark purple tight-fit dress that kissed the floor. Gloves reaching up to her upper arm matched the fabric and the color of her dress. And well...her head was of a falcon. When she talked, her beak moved open and closed, but a human-like voice bled from it. "I'm sure Leeds will agree if you threatened him like you did now."

"What did we say about calling Cavya 'Leeds'?" Mirani turned to the falcon-headed lady with a side-grin. "Don't do it in front of the guest, Ahrian."

Ahrian perked her falcon-head at me, her slitted green eyes zeroing in on me from the side of her head. "Ah, didn't notice the little one," she said. "Where'd you pick him up, Mira?"

Someone fond of using nicknames? Never met someone like that in the game, even as an NPC. They didn't have long-standing backstories and inside jokes either. Oh, they're not prone to admitting they didn't notice a player. This could only mean these people were far from being written NPCs, but that they're...real people. With real motivations, real pasts, and, well, real lives.

Mirani glanced at me. "Found him trying to outrun the Raids," she said. "I kept them in line and treated the blue boy to a drink. That's all there is to it."

"And here I thought you've found a new one after that craphole," another male voice speared through the conversation. I turned to find a normal-looking person striding towards us. Just that he had bright pink hair tied in a strict ponytail and that his ears tapered to such a sharp point. Fringes of pink locks framed his face in uneven lengths. When he moved to take the stool beside Ahrian, I spied his hair reaching his hips, even longer than Mirani's luscious curls.

And now that I noticed it, Mirani had the same ears as the newcomer, except that hers were almost hidden by a fuller and straighter fringe over her forehead and the chunk framing her round face. These people...they're not human.

"Well, blue boy, that's your cue to leave," Mirani said. "Too bad you didn't get to finish your drink. But it's amazing, no?"

I frowned, staring inside my cup. A part of me hoped the frothy liquid would reflect my own face back to me. Did I have an animal head or pointy ears too? What did the spell information call me? A valdyrsi.

"Blue boy?" Mirani prodded—a clear signal that I should be going along now.

Back when I was a lone wolf muscling my way towards the max stats and treasures in the game, I felt like there was nothing to lose since I wouldn't experience pain even if I die. The game would just restart and I would be reborn.

But now...

My encounter with the Hunting Raids taught me enough about this new iteration of the game. While I didn't know what would happen to my body if I die inside it, one thing was sure—I will be feeling a lot of pain as I go. That's something I wanted to avoid as much as I could. Because how else would I make it home if I was dead in a ditch somewhere that's not even the real world? My mother and brother needed me. And Hye-jin...

I squeezed my eyes shut when her familiar yet distant face popped into my head. It was no longer my concern whatever happened to her. She could be inside this game or has already found a way out and left me. I didn't care. Let her do what she wanted—like she had always dreamed of. Let her have her freedom. It's what she was dying for anyway.

Until then, I needed to survive and bring my stats back to the way they were before. I knew all of the spots, quests, and items to do just that, but I wasn't certain if they're part of the things that have changed. I was willing to risk it, though. There was only danger in uncertainty and without the blanket that was the assurance of all of this being merely a game, it'd only be more treacherous.

And what's to protect me from all that? Bingo. An association with a powerful guild and an adventurer party. So, despite my initial reluctance to join or open parties, I had no choice now. At least until I find a way to get back home, I'd be a part of one.

"I want to join your party," I blurted. When I hadn't raised my head from my cup, it would seem like I was talking to my drink. So, I met Mirani's eyes. "Please let me join Dragnasand."

Mirani opened her mouth but a different voice came out. "Now that's something I don't hear every day."

I whirled to the source of the voice only to have my gaze land on a man with a cat for a head striding towards me in the most fashionable suit I've come across in this world. It didn't even fit the initial worldbuilding of the game, with its pressed lapels, green and black pinstripes, and an off-white scarf tucked into his embellished vest in place for a tie which would have normally joined the package.

He tipped his tophat at me. "Are you sure about that, min khari?" he asked, his cat-like snout moving like how human lips would. His whiskers twitched as he strode towards me, tapping the butt of his dark wood cane against the tavern's creaky floorboards. "Do you think it's easy to join the Central Tower's most prestigious circle?"

This must be the Cavya person they'd been talking about since earlier. He's the leader of the Dragnasand Knights and must be powerful in his own right, even if he looked like the creatures populating social media. Perhaps, charm's his special skill?

"I don't think it's easy," I answered, sliding off my seat to face the leader properly. Now, the glaring difference in our heights was even more obvious. Even with the customized height of my character, I just stood to his shoulders. "I'm prepared to undergo any kind of trial to prove myself, so hit me with what you've got."

A glint shone from Cavya's olive green eyes. "Any trial, you say?"

I balled my fists from my sides. "Any trial," I echoed.

He blinked just how the cozy stray cats back home did. He hummed, a gloved finger tapping against his chin. "I know," he flashed the same finger in the air. "How about a one-on-one duel?"

"Leeds!" Ahrian leaped off her stool in a flash. "What are you thinking? We don't have an opening now. This will get you in trouble with the Guildmaster."

The cat-head turned to the falcon-head. Cavya's gaze was leveled and calm, but underneath the placid features, something simmered and readied to burst. Ahiran seemed to sense it because she dropped back into her stool. "If there are no openings, I could just make one," Cavya said. "Say, we need a valdyrsi on our ranks to do reconnaissance and espionage."

A spy? Was that a thing in the adventuring parties?

Yoara, the dragon with green scales, scoffed. "We could just leave it up to the scouting parties," he said, inserting his snout inside the cup. I guess that's how his kind was able to drink? "What's the point of hiring another ass to cover?"

"Language," Valren, the dragon with yellow scales, muttered underneath his breath.

Cavya's eyes squinched up. "That's why I'm setting a condition you'll ultimately love," he turned to me, as if he just remembered I was there to witness everything. "Will you consider my proposition, valdyrsi?"

"Lay it out," I challenged.

"A one-to-one duel with any of us of my choosing," Cavya said. "If you win, you will become part of the Dragnasand Knights. If you lose..."

I bated my breath. Cavya leveled his gaze at me. "If you lose, you'd be prohibited to join any guild in the Central Tower under my recommendation. Choose wisely, min khari. This would make or break your life as you know it."

It's an impossible stake with heaven on one hand and hell on the other. But what choice did I have? I could go to lesser guilds and parties, but it wouldn't ensure my safety and freedom to investigate the things I needed to check without being prodded and distracted every time. If I have a little power, I would retain some sort of privacy and be left mostly alone. And only the strongest circles could offer that.

I didn't have a grasp of how my physical body moved in this world, or if I could win this with just my starting skills, but this was a good chance to learn. It's a good place to start accepting the world I was thrown into.

"Who will I be fighting?" I asked.

Cavya grinned, no longer cute like his kind on the internet. He looked like he would eat me for dinner. "Me."

Mirani's stool clattered, signaling her immediate movement. "Cav, be reasonable," she said. "There's no way he could fight you and win."

The cat-head leaned aside to look at the blue-clad woman. "I am reasonable. I said I could pick any one of us. I picked me," he said. "As for seeing as he could fight me and win, I guess we'll have to see that for ourselves. That's why we'll be having that duel in the first place."

Without much resistance left, Mirani shrank back to her seat. Cavya turned back to me and I to him. "So, what will it be?" he asked.

I clenched my jaw and met Cavya's calculating gaze. "I accept," I said. My voice sounded hollow and unfamiliar in my ears. "When would it be?"

Cavya didn't miss a beat. "Tomorrow."