The sound of hammers accompanied the whirring of various tools and machines, barely covering the shouting of master craftsmen to their apprentices. The smell of heated metal mixed with the fumes coming out of large cauldrons, filling the building with what had come to be known as the "workshop smell". People of all races ran around, carrying materials from one workstation to another, or frantically getting things ready for the day's work awaiting them. At the center of the main area stood a long circular desk behind which sat the team in charge of handling adventurers and other customers.

As Ney entered, he was surprised by how much larger and busier the place was compared to the artisan plaza in Fibela. The constant movement of people and items between the stations was mesmerizing, and eventually caused him to become dizzy. As he caught his breath, Cariene took a few steps forward, turned towards him and said:

"Welcome to the Grand Workshop, one of the most useful places for adventurers! When you wish to get rid of materials you collected in dungeons, or upgrade your equipment, or maybe even restock on potions if you happen to be running low, this is the place for it. I know they also sell raw materials, but that's more interesting to merchants than us."

Ney dropped his backpack from his shoulder, causing the metal shards in it to clink.

"So I just bring this to the desk over there?"

"That's right! They'll inspect the material and pay you for it. You can also ask them about upgrading your gear and they'll give you pointers based on what you're carrying, but that really isn't worth it right now. You'll level up too fast for the price to be worth paying."

"Right. To it, then."

He approached the center desk, unable to suppress his nervosity. The people there were experts, while this was his first time engaging with them. He also had to trust that he'd get a fair deal, since he had no prior experience selling materials to serve as a point of comparison.

The woman at the counter smiled as he approached, then asked:

"Welcome! I haven't seen you before. New adventurer?"

"Ah, yes. It is my first visit here."

"Very good. I assume you're here to sell, then?"

"Indeed."

With a smile and a nod, she turned around and shouted:

"Master Reiver, materials to inspect, if you would."

A grumpy old dwarf got up from behind a small desk at the center of the circular counter. He swapped the glasses he was wearing for ones equipped with magnification tools, then grabbed his cane and wobbled his way to Ney. In the meantime, the receptionist set a step ladder where she stood, which the old man then climbed.

He looked at the empty counter in front of him before asking:

"Eh? Where's the merchandise?"

Ney, who was still surprised by the spectacle he had just witnessed, snapped out of it.

"Ah, sorry, here you go."

He emptied his backpack in front of the dwarf, who immediately began opening the bags and flipping through the metal shards at an impressive speed. He eventually made it to the more exotic materials Ney had obtained from bosses, causing him to nod with satisfaction.

"Not a single piece of scrap metal mixed in there. You're an honest one, young'un. Don't lose yourself, you'll go farther that way."

Ney looked at the receptionist, confused, so she clarified:

"It's not rare for adventurers to mix in scrap metal from broken equipment in their materials to try to get more money than they're worth."

The dwarf agreed, a stern look on his face.

"That they do. Of course, we're not ones to just let that slide. Get caught twice, and we're sending word to all the artisans in the kingdom that they should do business with you no more. It's career-ending, really. Oh and the first time you get caught, we confiscate the materials without compensation. But I think you'll do fine, you strike me as an honest worker."

Ney nodded, letting the information sink in. That was a harsh punishment, no doubt about it, but if workshops kept getting scammed out of funds, it'd make it impossible for adventurers to get the gear and items they needed. It was best for everyone to do their part in maintaining the workshops and their networks.

"Yes, I'll do my best!"

"Ah, Good kid! Alright then, that's a coin and a half per metal shard, and ten coins each for the Dustman's Heart and the Dire Rat's Fur, for a total of a seventy-two coins. Korie, I leave the rest to you."

The receptionist bowed.

"Thank you, Master Reiver."

As the dwarf got down from the ladder and walked back to his desk, The receptionist opened a compartment on her side of the counter, counted for a moment, then put a few piles of coins in front of Ney.

"Here you go, adventurer. Until next time!"

Ney grabbed his money, then walked back to the entrance, where Cariene waited for him.

"So, how was your first experience with the people here?"

"They seem pretty serious about the work they do. Still, only a coin and a half for my materials? I expected a bit more."

She shrugged.

"You went through three dungeons that get cleared several times every day. These materials are so common here that there's always too much of them available, no matter how many projects make use of them. Even when the city went ahead and reinforced its perimeter wall with metal sourced from the dungeons, the price didn't go up."

"Wow. What about the dungeons outside of the city, then?"

"Most of them will also grant pretty pitiful rewards, unless you get lucky with your drops. There are exceptions though, since some materials are so widely used that their price stays up no matter how many adventurers collect them. That's not to say they're expensive, just that some manage to make a living entirely from collecting and selling them, without ever putting themselves in danger."

"I see... So I'll need to become way stronger before I can start making good money as an adventurer."

"Not necessarily. That's what the quest board is for. If some cheap materials are running low, they'll pay you an extra fee to go collect them. Similarly, the government regularly issues requests for specific dungeons to be cleared, to ensure that monsters won't start leaving them. You can make some pretty good money from those."

"Okay, so for now, focus on requests. Later, I can think about getting sweet drops from monsters."

Cariene giggled before saying:

"Well, requests will never stop being a good source of revenue for you, but you're right, rare materials will eventually become just as important, if not more."

With the two of them now back at the adventurers guild, the master asked the apprentice:

"So, did you take the time to look at the different pieces of gear you got out of the dungeons?"

Ney tried to remember what he could about them before answering:

"Yes, and they're all very comparable to one-another. Am I missing anything?"

"Probably. Did you notice the inactive bonus on each of them?"

Ney dug deeper into his memory.

"Oh! Yeah, but I figured I'd worry about them later."

"A good choice, but 'later' is now! Since you haven't hit level 10 yet, I'll make you pick a dungeon to run on repeat today. The inactive bonuses on these pieces of gear are set bonuses, meaning that you get access to them if you wear enough stuff that dropped from the same dungeon. So, with that in mind, where are we going?"

"I, um... I'm gonna need to go back to my room to check, I don't remember what they all gave, exactly."

Cariene blinked a few times.

"You're... not carrying your stuff in a magical bag?"

"... A what?"

She rubbed her eyes before saying, exasperated:

"Right, right, you're from a small village, so it's unlikely you've ever seen one. Follow me."

The two walked upstairs to the guildmaster's office, where she grabbed a bag, reached in, and pulled out a massive two-handed axe, far larger than the bag. Ney, stupefied, could only stare, his brain screaming that he had just witnessed something very wrong.

"That... it's... How was that axe in there!?"

"You know how dungeons are way bigger on the inside? Similar principle."

The cogs in his mind turned for a few more seconds before he finally began to grasp what was going on. He then moved on to the second surprise:

"And... I didn't know you fought with an axe."

Cariene laughed.

"That's not mine, it's Jell's. She didn't want to bring it back home, so I've been keeping it with me. We're retired, so it's not like we need our best weapons on us all the time anymore, but they're still precious."

Ney imagined his teacher wielding that massive piece of metal, then asked:

"Um... What class is Jell?"

"Right now? Probably just Fighter. Back in our dungeon delving days, however, she was an Abyss Warrior, an insanely powerful class capable of ignoring all pain and fighting even after dropping to zero HP. She was our party's defender, and a very capable one at that."

That was even harder to visualize for him, but he also realized he really didn't know enough about Jell to have any idea what she would have been doing inside dungeons. He didn't even know she was married until a few days ago.

Seeing that Ney's questioning was over, Cariene continued:

"So anyway, what I'm getting at is that almost every adventurer has a bag like this. More expensive ones can hold more items, but even the cheapest of the cheap is enough get you started. They also come with the ability to give you the information about items inside without you needing to grab them, so if you're carrying extra weapons or pieces of armor, you can just check what they do at any moment. And while you're here..."

She dropped everything, headed over to a closet in the corner of the room, and started frenetically digging in, eventually coming out with a leather bag. She then handed it to Ney.

"Here's my old old bag. It's the first one I bought, from a few decades ago... so it's an old model, but it'll save you a few hundred coins at least."

He looked closer at it, noticing a few traces of wear, but nothing to worry about.

"Are you sure I can have it?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it. You're going to need the extra space to keep multiple weapons and armor sets anyway, so just treat this as me helping you out with your skill again."

Ney nodded, then grabbed a potion from his pouch and put it in the bag.

Item added: Healing Potion.
Capacity: 199/200 remaining.

Astonished, he asked:

"I can carry 200 items in there!?"

"More than that. If you put multiple copies of the same item, they count as just one thing, up to a point anyway. I told you they're really handy."

"I... I'll try my best to be worthy of such a gift!"

Cariene tapped his shoulder, smiling.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Like I said, these are super common among adventurers. Well, not bags that big, but you get what I mean. Just make sure to get proper sets for all your classes with that space."

"I will!"

After going over the gear left in his room and stuffing it all in his new bag, Ney walked down the stairs and sat at the table where Cariene awaited him before saying:

"Alright, so, looks like the tower gear gives extra HP as the set bonus, the sewer gear has damage boosts for certain weapon types, and the abandoned city grants SP. So, I feel like the tower set is what's most useful for me right now as a Fighter, but the abandoned city set is what's most useful in general."

The guildmaster took a sip of the drink she had gotten while waiting for him before saying:

"A good analysis. So which one should you go for?"

"Since I don't know what role I'll be filling yet, probably the city."

"Perfect! Then let's get going. I'd like for you to complete the set today."

Ney started panicking a bit.

"How... how many runs will that take?"

"Mmmh... Depends on your luck, but probably at least ten?"

Remembering how tired he was after only three dungeons, Ney almost fainted.

In a narrow alley stood a tall portal filled with the strange energy indicating a dungeon's entrance. As Ney stood in front of it, he asked Cariene:

"Do I really have to do this a bunch of times? I ran three dungeons yesterday and I don't think I can do any better than that."

She waved her hand dismissively while saying:

"That's too low, you need to get more used to being in there. But no, I don't expect you to solo this dungeon ten times today. There's not much more for you to learn by going in there without a party. So, for the sake of speeding things up and getting you ready for when you do team up with other people, I'll be accompanying you today."

"...Eh?"

Ney's astonishment made Cariene giggle.

"Come on, don't look at me like that. I'll kill everything on your path so you can go and collect the reward quickly. What's so confusing about it?"

"That's allowed!?"

Cariene hesitated for a moment before saying:

"Yeah, but it's something we don't normally do. People who rely on others to get through dungeons end up not being able to perform properly for their level, and usually die an avoidable death. Since you need flexible gear, however, I'm making an exception. These dungeons also don't give enough experience points for your level to get out of control, so it won't saddle you with a dangerous disparity between your actual know-how and your level."

Ney took a moment to think about it. It seemed likely that rich people would pay to have their level artificially increased by established adventuring parties, so he might have to be wary about teaming up with them. The same could apply more generally though, leading him to wonder if any measures were in place to help avoid deadly accidents.

"Does the guild do anything to avoid this issue more broadly, or do we just have to trust people we team up with?"

"Unfortunately, there's no way for us to know ahead of time when someone got 'boosted', as we say in the industry. However, if you realize that a member of your party isn't performing well for their level, you can report them. After enough reports, they receive a warning, and if they don't adjust, they get expelled completely from the guild. That being said, being part of a consistent party is a good way to avoid those people entirely."

A rather complex issue to navigate. Ney had always assumed that a person's level would accurately represent their power, but he now realized that this wasn't quite the case. The fact that skills didn't increase a person's level, even when of Legendary or Mythic rarity, also made that clear. If two people at the same level fought, the one with a powerful skill or more practical experience would have an edge.

Being an adventurer wasn't going to be as simple as teaming up with others of a similar level and going through dungeons.

"I think I understand. I'll be careful to level up organically. However... Doesn't my skill basically guarantee that I'll never be as good at filling any given role as someone of the same level who does only one thing?"

Cariene thought for a moment, trying to find the best way to reassure him, before saying:

"Yeah, probably. But that's one of the reasons I found you some of the best mentors around, and why I'm personally overseeing your training, among other things. You also don't need to be the best at what you do to clear dungeons. You don't even need to be average. You just need to get the job done."

Seeing that he wasn't convinced, she put a hand on his shoulder and continued:

"The increased flexibility you get from being able to fill any role will more than make up for your lack of experience in any one of them. And if I'm right about your skill, you'll also have unique powers that open up a bunch of new tactics for your party, making you entirely worthwhile to team up with. I wouldn't worry too much about it for now."

Ney nodded, still unsure of how to feel about his situation. His power once again felt more like a burden than a gift, but he couldn't dismiss the possibility that its true potential was hidden within the extra classes he had access to. Pushing his doubts aside, he looked at Cariene and said:

"You're right. I'll try my best."

She smiled, then focused on something for a bit. Ney felt something move in his mind as a question appeared:

You have been invited to join Cariene Pielon's party.

He focused on accepting, then felt a few more things shift before settling in place. While like this, he felt something at the edge of his consciousness indicating the direction in which the guildmaster was, and he could feel her current HP and SP when looking at her.

"So that's how healers know who to focus on!"

Cariene laughed, then responded:

"That's right! First time being in a party?"

"Yeah! Wait, how did you even invite me?"

"It's a bit like everything else, you think about doing it. You have to focus on the person you want to invite rather than on yourself though. But now that this is done..."

She pointed towards the portal.

"... we have a dungeon to grind!"