[Activate: Happy Song]

Erik was amazed by the sight of the large city before him and he was in awe at how tall some of the building rose. His tribe lived a village, but it was no where even close to half the size of Rothar. He had only arrived at city about three days ago and thanks to doing some tasks for various travelers while on his journey through this vast world, he was able to acquire some money for himself. While on his journey Erik had heard stories about the city and of their need for magic users to partake in various missions and duties in service to the Kingdom of Rothar. If he wanted to keep eating and stay in this city he would have to sign up for some of those missions.

For some reason Erik felt that staying in Rothar for a while was the right choice, maybe it was part of his destiny, but something inside him told him that it would be important and his people were known for trusting their feelings on such things. And so Erik was now a temporary residence of Rothar and the first thing he did was make sure that he found a place to stay that wasn't too expensive, Erik wasn't the kind of person to care about luxurious living as long as he had food in his belly and felt satisfied he would be happy. Beside Erik was more interested in developing his magical powers than swimming in money and surrounded by riches.

While he was taking in the sights, Erik decided to head to the city market, which was always busy during day with merchants and customers buying and selling all sorts of goods. Once there he went to a fruit cart and purchased himself an apple. While he was enjoying the juicy fruit, in incident happened. Some criminal got his hands on a merchant's money bag and tried to make off with it. Erik was not going to tolerate theft in his presence and with his apple still held in his right hand, he charged after the thief.

"Thieves never prosper when their methods are so poor" he said to himself with a smile and as he said that Erik channeled his magic into his legs and increased his speed to superhuman levels. Civilians moved by him as a blur as he had his sight entirely focused on his target and within seconds he closed the distance between them. Erik wasted no time and quickly kicked out his right foot, tripping the criminal. In one insanely fast move, Erik grabbed the man with his left hand and slammed him into in the ground forcefully. He made sure it wasn't hard enough to be fatal, but it would still hurt like hell and the thief would remember it. With the man subdued, Erik grabbed the stolen money bag from the ground next to him and gave the man a glare.

"Remember this moment the next time you try to rob from innocent and good people" he growled and released the man. The man instantly fled in terror and Erik didn't give him a second thought as he walked causally back to the merchant who had been robbed by the thief. He handed him his stolen money bag and the merchant thanked Erik gratefully.

"Thank kind and noble sir" the merchant said with a bow and Erik was surprised at the response, no had ever called him noble before.

"It was nothing and there's no need to call me noble" he replied to him and with that Erik left the market and finished the rest of his apple. He had managed to hold onto the fruit even when catching a thief, it was a good achievement in his eyes and the rush of excitement in the chase made him more eager to take on missions offered by the kingdom. Erik decided that it would be a good time to go and see what kind of missions where available by heading to the magical jobs institute.

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The City of Rothar... Miss Hudson smiled fondly, while she had been looking around and enjoying the nice weather. Plus nice looking men were additional bonus, although this part was something she never admitted loud of course. In the end she was a lady of highest class. Every single time she visited this certain city Miss Hudson could relax and just forget about her problems. Unfortunately this time problems were too big and they bringed a frown on her face, which didn't exactly help her mood. Problem in the end was that she needed the money and potential danger which started to show up near her homeland DewFoot valley forced her to look for new funds, mostly towards defenses and hiring potential help.

Miss Hudson sighed, while drinking coffee in one of Taverns. She enjoyed her life and the travels and adventures Miss Hudson had been part of and still is truly made her happy, but in the end situation in her country started to look truly desperate. Enemy mages which try to destroy runic barriers which surround it, not experienced enough army and lack of funds made everything complicated. Plus the children... if something happened to them, Miss Hudson would probably die from depression. That wasn't the option in the end!

Although in the end her school of magic provided something unique. Cantripology always have been a school which provided more support based approach. Nothing was wrong with this of course - in a world where most focused mostly on destructive or at least game-breaking types of magic, the ability to simply secure survival of your allies was something that many adventure parties appreciated. In many cases simple pride or underestimation never allowed anyone seriously take lowest level spells, which Cantripologists in the end proved how foolish that approach was. Basics are not only the easiest to learn, but also truly effortless to power up, so weak spell in theory suddenly had far more power then it should. Most underestimated magic school and yet so effective... one day Miss Hudson realized how shortsighted some mages are, which was sad. Of course she was far too polite to point this out, as she never enjoyed argues. The only regret she had is that she never took disciple under her wing and maybe also that she never had children even with the few spicy romances she enjoyed. Once Miss Hudson remembered them, her cheeks suddenly turned red, she ended up drinking her coffee and in the end she decided to visit Magical Jobs Institute to look for new employer. Money was something she needed desperately after all...

"Lad, put another round for everybody in the tavern, on me!"

Rothar... Johnson never liked this city. While it was peaceful for what it was, it seemed stale after the planes. The best part of it was the taverns, and even then there was never anything interesting going on in them. Johnson felt as if it was time for him to start settling down and start helping society more than focusing on his research. Although spending time with the royal scientists was fun, having someone you could be proud of was better. As he thought, however...

"Hey Johnson! Tell us one of your stories, old man!"

The old man smiled, he knew he couldn't pass up telling a story.

"Alrighty chums. Gather round the table, and hear the story of my best friend who became a lich! A long time ago, I got sucked into traveling with a few adventurers and helped them raid a few crypts and dungeons. While it was fun for the first few, I started to feel like it was time for me to move on. I decided that I would help this ragtag group of heroes, consisting of a barbarian-esque hooligan who was very cool, a snotty paladin, and my best friend in the group, an elven bard. We go dungeon-crawling and raid the place dry. The paladin stayed back in the treasure room with the bard, and claimed her of misdeed and evil. She admitted to it, and as I came back to get them, I saw the paladin stabbed in the back by the bard. As she ascended to lichdom, I stared at her with me weapons lowered. She told me of how her home went into anarchy, killing her entire family, and causing her rape, torture, and... unrepairable damage. She escaped and came here, vowing to take her nation back and avenge her family. She bid me farewells as she left, now a lich, going to save her kingdom. I still miss 'er, but I know she died valiantly."

As the tavern erupted in applause, Old Man Johnson walked out. He missed his old days of adventuring and the excitement that came with it. He heard of an institute in Rothar that gave jobs, and he even went there a few times to teach the youth of the city. Oh how they enjoyed it! Johnson gave it a quick thought and walked towards the Magical Jobs Institute, hoping to re-obtain his excitement and valor for adventuring.

@Weird Tales@kejmur

Gregory had spent his morning tending to himself a few of the other birds that had followed him around. After his morning routine of preening and making sure the other birds were loyal he took off flying towards Rothar. His current group was small, consisting of a few dozen pigeons like himself, about five geese and a few rather large turkey vultures. There was shadow cast from his group flying over the city, they only blocked out the sun momentarily but only enough to be noticed for about a minute. Soon enough he and his group made their way to the magical jobs institute. Unlike most adventurers he was there to hire. A large crowd gathered around his group of birds as they walked in.

The Turkey vultures acted as if they were the leader, the great thing about Gregorys telepathy was that no one ever knew where it was coming from and he could have the large turkey vultures act as if they were him. He and a few other birds took out a roll of paper which had a mission written on it. It read: "Those who are willing to dive into finding a knew kind of magic. We want to learn how to teach other birds like ourselves to use magic, help us and you will be payed a hefty reward."

Many people within the institute looked at the message for a bit before leaving, believing that there was no way these birds could pay, not to mention how dangerous it was to imbue animals with magic of their own. "Help us! It is my life long goal to make others birds like me, my life span is not long but I wish to carry on my legacy!" Gregory pleaded to the crowd hoping someone would listen to his plead.

It had been a long day for Anne. First, a fire had broken out and severely damaged the kitchens, so she needed to spend most of the morning crafting a new spell to fix the damage. Then, a merchant caravan had stopped by for lunch, and her skills in serving were pushed to the limit in order to deal with the vastly increased clientele. In short, it had been the kind of day to wear down even an immaterial girl.

One of her favorite things to do after work was just float aimlessly through the market, seeing what sort magical trinkets or other oddities were for sale. "Come along, Lucky. I'll even buy you a treat."

The black cat's eyes lit up like stars. "Oh, goodie! Get me some fresh fish from the river." He followed along at his master's heels as they entered the vast bazaar.

Reagan walked around the streets of Rothar, head low but eyes constantly roaming over the faces of the people that passed her. She managed to find herself in one of Rother's more unsavory neighbourhoods and if she weren't looking for a criminal herself, then she would have never even set foot in the street's direction. Alas, she had combed every inch of the neighbourhood she'd stayed in (a decent neighbourhood with decent people who'd only attempted to pick a fight with her once) and she knew that she had to expand her reach. She would catch that Flatfoot, she swore that much to her family.

<I am certain you will capture her. We must simply bide our time.>

Reagan frowned, hearing Zaebor's words echo in her mind. The kind demon had always repeated the same mantra - that all Reagan had to do was to be patient - but with each passing day, her patience wavered. Rothar was a big kingdom and the Flatfoots were as sneaky as they came. Their ability to traverse ground undetected had been the reason why they were able to gather information about the rituals House Fletcher performed after all. Reagan hated it.

A cracking laughter that brought chills into the very core of her bones replaced the warm humming. <Bide our time? Zaebor, as always, your mind escapes you. While we sit around on our laurels, that filthy Flatfoot lass will be halfway across the continent.> Keadal's voice came like a whisper, lulling Reagan to sleep. She could almost see his pearly white canines in the recesses of her mind, but before she could begin to push Keadal back, he spoke again. <Now, now, child. Listen to my plan instead. Your powers of conjuration have grown and magic buzzes around Rothar like electricity in the air. Utilize that and you can conjure me and I will track down that Flatfoot for you.>

While Keadal spoke true, Reagan just laughed. When she received the odd glances of a few passerbys, she simply shot them a glare and continued on. She glanced around, noticing an establishment she'd been hearing about for quite some time now. "Or we could simply be logical," she muttered under her breath. The Magical Jobs Institute was known for their employment of all sorts of magic users for the completion of jobs should the coin be enough. Why she hadn't thought of utilizing their services before escaped Reagan, but she was there now and the Flatfoot would be under her charge soon enough.

<Might I remind you that we have run low on coin, my child.> Reagan paused after entering the institute. Zaebor was right. The amount of time she'd spent around Rothar looking for the Flatfoot had drained her resources dry and she couldn't bear to send a missive to her home for more, not with the war. With a muttered expletive under her breath, she looked around the institute. None of the adventurers inside would dare take on a job for little to no pay.

As she wandered around, a voice caught her attention. It was strange to have yet another voice reach into her mind and she was quick to look around for its source. With Zaebor's guidance, it wasn't hard. A small crowd gathered around a group of birds with Turkey vultures acting like the commanding officers. Still, it did not seem like the voice came from them. The voice was different, smarter not like the vultures that seemed to be more the brawn of the flock. Some adventurers were leaving the flock, uninterested with what they had to offer, but Reagan approached and squatted down to grab one of the scrolls the adventurers had tossed.

<Imbuing animals with magic? The audacity.>

<As much as it pains me, Zaebor speaks true. This is foolish.>

Reagan ignored the two demons and sought out the true owner of the voice. When she failed to find out exactly which of the birds it was, she simply spoke to them as a whole. "I understand your plight." And she did, in a way. Somewhat like these birds, the Fletchers were once magicless. They triumphed and captured magic that they made their own, and now they were more than successful. These birds had to know that magic could bring more than what some thought. "While monetary reward does sound appealing, how about I employ your services instead? I will do all I can to help you find your magic and afterwards, you will help me find someone." She held out her hand, palm up, awaiting for the true leader of the flock to approach her.

@Cuccoruler

Helena gave her best smile, "Darling, that one is gorgeous isn't it?" She gestured to a stunning blue dress in a shop window. A nobleman's son following her, entranced by what many would think to be young love but Helena knew it was certainly more nefarious than that. He looked at it briefly and nodded, a nonverbal cue that she could have it. While normally she would have indulged, she hesitated as she felt a twinge guilt, this was the second hapless man she had ensnared this week. She suspected when the Irulans taught that the would was their 'oyster' and despite the fact that those words were directed towards those in the family who actually had the traditional skills, this was probably not what they meant. As such she hesitated and shook her head, "Not my color... maybe some other time." She said and a look of confusion crossed over his face, she was loosing him. Helena sighed, "Well, I must be going. I am very sorry, I can't change your memories too much but you'll definitely think of today pleasantly... the money was spent while you spent the day with a lovely girl. Today was a good day and she said she would write but you're fairly sure she won't." She used a bit of the voice, it would likely be enough to convince him since he was already in a pretty suggestible state.

An hour and a nice walk through the city had done little to put her guilt to rest. Off in the distance she could see the Magical Jobs institute, a place she had actually avoided in the months since her arrival in the city. The reasons were complex but it boiled down to the fact she knew in the case of most jobs she would be useless and she feared judgement for her abilities. People were better off not knowing what she could do. However she could only swindle the rich of this city for so long. If she could manage to make some powerful friends and keep her magic from blowing up in her face the magical jobs institute would probably be a good fit for her. Plus she didn't necessarily have to take any jobs, she could just check the place out, hopefully. Helena took a deep breath and started towards the Institute. If she could clear her conscious for a while she could go back to her normal, although despicable, lifestyle.

"So this is the Magical Jobs Institute?"

The Old Man entered the building while examining it from head to toe, his sidekick-of-a-sword Re'svex floating beside him in a sheath.

"I honestly expected it to be more... how do I put it... grand?"

Honestly, the place looked rather cliché and dull. Johnson figured there would at least be a bit more of an elegant feel or maybe even a risky environment to accompany all of the hype he was given for this place. It looked fine, but just seemed very bleak and bland all things considered. After looking around a bit more in the institute, he found two people, who both seemed eager for adventuring and payment. the first one looked like a young male of badgerfolk descent, and had a positively righteous aura (@Weird Tales). The other was a halfling woman, who he faintly recognized as Miss Hudson. Although he didn't really talk to her or ever meet her for that matter, he did know who she was, and was very curious about why she was here (@Kejmur). After a quick thought, he exclaimed to the two people:

"OI! YOU GUYS LOOKIN' FOR A GOOD TIME?"