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“Is there any chance I could join a lesser guild? Not that I don’t want to join Gavle’s, but it has to be easier to join a guild and get access to their rift than to get ten thousand credits, right?” Matt hoped for it to be true.
Miles's face hardened at Matt’s question. He stared Matt right in the eyes and forcefully said, “Matt, with a Talent rating as bad as yours, it doesn’t matter if your Tier 3 might fix the problem. No one here is going to willingly risk the resources to train you without a near illegal…” he grimaced, “or an actually illegal lifelong contract you’d never get out of. They’d take all your earnings or use some other nefarious deal to suck you dry.”
Matt sputtered for a response, but Miles held up his hand and continued, “This planet is just too new and too poor. Just the teleportation to neighboring planets is too expensive for wasteful transits. Every inch of space is worth its weight in mana stones. A good 80% of the recruits we pick up today are never even going to leave this planet in the next five years. If they don't have clear potential, the Guild isn't going to shoulder that cost.
“Go ahead and try, but don’t sign anything without reading the contract. Every single word. All recruitment contracts have to be in plain text that is easy to understand.”
Miles reached into a cabinet along the wall and grabbed some cards. He held his hand out for Matt to shake and handed the cards over in his off-hand. “These are PlanetNet vouchers. Each card is good for an hour of uptime, and these five should get you through the next few years. The CityNet mostly just has general info, but the PlanetNet will let you check Glesie’s rift status from time to time.”
Miles looked drained all of the sudden. “Good luck, kid. And when you solo delve, play it safe and don’t get injured. Healing will put you into crippling debt faster than anything else. Slow and methodical. Careful. Just be careful.”
With that, Miles turned and trudged out of the room, and Matt took it as the dismissal it was.
He tried to help me, and his advice about the contracts is good to know. Without that warning, I might have jumped on the first offer without looking into it.
For the next hour, Matt traveled from stall to stall seeing if any guilds, corporations, or crafter associations would take a chance on him. But Miles had been right. Few were willing to even talk to him after seeing the detrimental rating for his Tier 1 Talent. Those who were still willing presented him with predatory lifelong contracts, all containing inescapable clauses where at least 50% of all his earnings were owed to the guild, even if he left the guild at some later point.
One particularly heinous contract had a line stating he forfeited ownership of his own body. Matt shuddered to think what people who accepted that contract ended up doing. Illegal prostitution would be the most preferable outcome, if the look the recruiter had given him was any indication.
Matt picked up the bag with his few belongings inside and headed for the door, eager to escape before he lost his breakfast all over the polished floor. The moment he got outside, he fertilized the shrubs next to the front entrance with the contents of his stomach.
After rinsing his mouth out, Matt stood up and headed away from the Awakening Center. He didn't know where he was going, but there was no point in standing around.
This being only a Tier 4 planet meant the resources needed to advance past Tier 3 weren't readily available for the population at large. The only reliable way to accumulate essence was to delve into the rifts and slay whatever monsters you found.
Some of the books Matt read referenced the air on the Empire's Tier 47 capital planet. The atmosphere alone held so much ambient essence people could cultivate without delving into rifts. On this backwater, the ambient essence was near zero.
Transportation off the planet is too expensive. No guild will accept me unless my Tier 3 Talent is synergistic enough with my Tier 1 and lets me accumulate more mana so I’m not crippled.
Or unless I sign my life away.
Matt pondered his next steps.
I need a job.
Thirteen wasn’t technically considered an adult, at least not by the Empire’s normal standards. Starting today, though, they were all on their own. The orphanage just didn’t have the room or resources to spare on older children when most could find employment or an apprenticeship after receiving their Tier 1 Talents.
To relieve some of the crushing stress on the orphanages, both emancipation and Awakening were performed early on Lilly. Orphans were made legal adults at the age of thirteen instead of the usual late fourteen or fifteen when Awakening normally happened.
Matt wandered south. The further he walked, the more lingering damage he came across from the rift break five years ago.
While the debris was mostly cleaned up and repaired on the northern side of the city, the southern section still carried battle scars in the form of the occasional burned-out building still waiting to be demolished and rebuilt.
As Matt passed a crater where some great spell had ripped into the horde of monsters, rainwater filling in the bottom had turned it into a stagnant pool thick with algae growing on top.
Just another sign of what happened when rifts weren’t delved regularly enough. Another bleak reminder of the loss of his parents and the destruction of his city.
When searching the CityNet as he wandered aimlessly, Matt found a business called Benny’s Inn advertising an open position for ‘general staff. No skills needed. Room and board included. Pays four hundred credits a month.’
The description was lacking in detail, worryingly so. But with that kind of pay, Matt at least had to try. It offered more than any of the other unskilled labor jobs being advertised.
Matt looked up directions and followed the road for several more miles until he came upon Benny’s Inn. It was right near the edge of the five-mile coastline that served as the safe zone, the water preventing rifts from spawning.
Benny's Inn was situated on the trail leading to the closest Tier 4 rift in the region, the highest Tier available on the planet. It also had the benefit of being near the trailheads leading to the three Tier 3 rifts closest to the city. That made Benny’s the best place for local parties and groups to relax and recuperate between delves.
They say delvers spend way more credits than normal cultivators, so I need to work near delving to reach Tier 3 anytime soon. To reach a city with a public Tier 1 rift, I need money. The ten thousand credits on their own won't be enough. At the very least, I'll also need to buy gear and cover travel money.
What Matt found at the end of the road was a six-story building with a large, garish sign proclaiming the owner's name.
When he opened the front door, Matt found a large common area with a bar at the center surrounded by tightly packed tables and seating. Behind the counter, a big man in a greasy apron gave only a quick glance to Matt in the open door before immediately returning to whatever he was doing behind the bar.
As Matt approached, the man gruffly barked out, “Kid, unless you’re a paying customer, f**k right on off. No charity. No donations.” He never even bothered to look back up.
Matt braced himself and gathered all the cheer he could muster despite the man’s tone. “No, sir. I’m here to talk to Benny about the position that was posted. Can I assume that’s you, sir?”
That got the fat man to look back up. He scanned Matt with squinted eyes before asking “Lemme guess. Shitty Tier 1, kid?”
Matt swallowed hard before answering with what dignity he could, “Yes, sir.”
“Got any inkling what the job entails?”
“No, sir, but I'm willing to work hard. I’m—”
Benny cut him off. “Yeah, yeah. I already expect that, and I won't put up with nothin’ less. What I need is a floater. Somebody who can do any job. Jump between ‘em as needed.”
Benny’s eyes flicked around, and then back at Matt. “Might mean you scrub toilets. Might mean you help the girls carry out food when it's busy. Hours are from five in the morning to midnight, with a two-hour break ‘round noon. You get four hundred credits a month, no tips. I see you take a tip, I kick your ass out.”
Matt ground his teeth as much as he could without letting it show. The old bastard had him good. That kind of pay was excellent, even if it sounded like he’d be earning every credit.
The delve slot in Glesie was ten thousand credits, and that was his last lifeline. Simply too many people needed the low-tier rifts, and there were not enough of them to go around. Slots were bought, then later resold when the delvers team outgrew the rift’s Tier, so credits wouldn't be wasted. Nonetheless, the barrier to entry was high.
A little more than two years. That’s all. Call it two and a half for extra expenses. I can do this.
Matt’s decision was already made.
“Where do you want me to start, sir?”
- Writer
