“Ehmmm…Well, I grew up with that kind of music…”


    “But how?!? We just found the book, and I haven’t heard of any species playing Greenskin music!”


    “Actually, the guy who wrote that book, and invented Granite and I come from the same place.”


    “Impossible! My ancestor was a born Greenskin and he lived millennia ago!”


    “You know, those songs are thirty, forty or I don''t know, sixty years old at most, where I come from, belonging to multiple artists, so either everyone in the last forty years was copying from your ancestor, or he managed to somehow get a compendium of the last forty years'' best songs and bring it back to a few millennia ago."


    “Hah! Obviously, a not-Guild from your home was plagiarising my ancestor''s work for nefarious purposes for all those years!"


    Well, if the big record labels were present on more, than one world in all the multiverses, it actually would make sense. Maybe Earth was cut off from the other branches, and that was the reason, no good music came out for the last couple of decades.


    “I don’t think so. I’m not from here exactly.”


    “I figured out that much already. You are not a Greenskin and know nothing about the Western Marches. Clearly, you are from some far-away place."


    “You can say that. I’m not from Arkadia.”


    “WHAT?!?! You are a Traveller?!? Here to steal our women and fuck our gold? Destroy our way of life? Begin a war of conquest for your new Empire? Topple legitimate governments? Are you a HERO?!? Are these females your harem?"


    “Yes to the first question, no to the other ones. I just want to… Well, I don''t exactly know what I want to do. Seeing sights, touring the world, such. Conquering the world or doing the other stuff you said looks like too much work for too little gain."


    “But what about all those ideas about how to play MYTHRILL? That would be influencing the local population to change their way of life!”


    “Look, Wolfgang. Someone from Earth already gave you Granite, and I suspect, Clay originated from Earth too. You were listening to Earth music for how long, exactly? You could say, Granite and Clay are as much Greenskinian now as they were Earth Human. Besides, you found your ancestor’s book about Mythrill, I just told you, how we did things back on Earth. What you do with the information, is up to you. If you folks don’t like the way, make something new instead. I won’t force you.”


    “Yes, exactly! What could possibly go wrong?” Mini just had to raise a flag. Bringing a new way of life to other cultures went so well on Earth after all! But hey, the Greenskins already knew most of it, it will be just fine. Probably. Hopefully.


    “Yes, you are right. It’s all about progress, and we Greenskins are all about progress and getting more excellent! MYTHRILL is progress! Your Earth ways of making an excellent concert is progress! Let’s do this!”


    That went better and faster than Prof hoped. There was still the chance, Wolfgang would run directly to the Greenskinian version of the Immigration Office and they, in turn, would kick his door in within minutes.


    “What’s this talk about heroes?” Prof asked the others after Wolfgang left “It’s almost like everyone is afraid of them. Back on Earth being a hero was considered a good thing.”


    “Figures” Mini nodded wisely “A hero is a revered person on Arkadia too, but we are talking here about Heroes, that is Travellers, who style themselves as heroes. The Elves have even two different words for them.”


    “In Gerulian we have the distinction too. H?s?k are role models, while Csávók are considered a menace. When I was little, my mother always said, I should eat my porridge, or a Hero will come get me. Be a good girl, or the Hero''s Party will destroy the village."


    “What?”


    “Yeah. The stories say, Travellers, or Traveller Heroes, think, they are chosen by the Heavenly Game Master to… I dunno. Bring justice and peace and freedom and liberty and a lot of other things. Fight the oppressors, liberate the people, and kill the evil-doers. Transform Arkadia into something alien. The Hero''s Party is even worse – it is formed by like-minded crazies – and they set out to kill the Demon King, or start a crusade against someone or something."


    “Arkadia has a Demon King?”


    “Not that I know. Sometimes they think the Elven High King is it, or a ruler from Forestdeep, or the Halitchian Emperor, or all of them.”


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    “I’m not good at [History], but the stories all talk about carnage and huge wars following in their footsteps, while they plunder and kill their way through Arkadia. Plus the obligatory harems. I think, Heroes are killed on sight, and this is everyone is suspicious of Travellers. Mostly, it’s warranted.”


    “But you girls aren’t suspicious of me!”


    “Yeah”


    “Exactly”


    “Sssssure.”


    That wasn''t exactly reassuring. He hadn''t done anything wrong! He even saved them from evil slave merchants and even more evil Elves out for mass genocide! He saved Wolfgang from the evilest and vilest creatures out there, so he could bring back Heavy Metal to the Greenskins! There was no carnage and wars following him, and he only plundered some bywaymen and evil Brook Hags! Most importantly, he didn''t have a Harem, it was just a coincidence, that every last member of his party was female! Some of them even hated his guts, another was out to kill him, and one was a Prude – how could that be a Harem?


    For some reason, Prof expected his new life to be an awesome collection of epic adventures, slaying monsters with ease, and finding untold treasures while everyone idolized him. Maybe a little bit of harem. Not much, just one or two gorgeous chicks, who were not braindead. And definitely weren''t gold-diggers.


    If the stories he knew were correct, he already would have won some important tournament.


    The next day, they were able to make an appointment with the Mage’s not-Guild. Prof described, what they needed and what it should look like. The not-Guild''s representative then made some suggestions and rejected a few of Prof''s ideas immediately. Obviously, a few of the special effects were not possible, or the spells to make them were forbidden to be cast outside of large-scale battles. Despite what Prof feared, the not-Guild was actually quite helpful and even improved on some of his ideas. Learning, that the whole thing was concocted for a new kind of music and a new way to present it, their enthusiasm took over. Being excellent, helping others to get excellent, and making things excellent were too deeply ingrained into Greenskins not to give everything.


    They ended up hiring three mages: one for the illusions, one for lighting, and the last for fire and a bit of lightning. The last one wasn''t exactly good with [Magic: Lightning] – only 123% - but it was considered enough for the few spells from that school. If they wanted to be on the safe side, they could have paid a dedicated lightning mage with a better repertoire of spells, but the only such on hand was a master and would have to be paid a much higher sum.


    Wolfgang and Prof decided it wasn''t worth it. They were assured, the lower-Skilled mage would be able to cast the few spells they needed, and Prof was more focused on fire and illusions as he was on lightning.


    The real question was payment. While the mages made an actually quite good offer, it was still higher than they had physical money on them combined. What they had were gems, which in turn were each more worth than the mages wanted to charge for their services. The not-Guild didn''t want to buy any of the sparkling stones so they could be paid for casting spells at a concert.


    Of course, if the mages were to provide another service, they were more than willing to take a gem or two as payment, as long as they wouldn’t need to pay the party a larger sum. At first, Prof didn’t have any idea, what other service the not-Guild could provide that they actually needed.


    “What other service would you be willing to offer, sir?” the easiest way was to ask, after all.


    “We could provide training in the most schools of magic, however, since you don’t have the required Perks, you wouldn''t be able to actually cast Spells. We also have textbooks and Spells to sell, but the problem would be the same. We could identify magical items, but I don’t think, you have unidentified items, with a person who can cast in your party. What you would be most likely interested in, is enchanting and modifying already enchanted items.”


    “You can modify the properties of magical items? I didn’t know that.”


    “Not many know. After all, if you have enough means to order an item to your exact specifications, why would you need to modify one? Most people use heirlooms that are not a hundred percent perfect. But yes, there is the possibility to modify properties.”


    That gave Prof an idea. While The Chopper was more or less a good fit for him, providing the required daily blood donation was starting to become tedious. He was starting a genocide of chickens already. If the mages could remove the need for blood, the axe’s value would rise immensely for Prof.


    On the other hand, no one was really comfortable with the idea to prance around in some kind of flashy magical gear, that was most likely a good way to an early grave. As was prancing around with a shitload of money. Even on Earth, a wealthy citizen would attract gold-diggers, criminals, distant relatives and old acquaintances like mayonnaise left out in the Sun would attract flies. On Arkadia… well, in most places, CSI wasn''t invented yet and no one would miss an unknown foreigner to begin with.


    A basic durability enchantment wouldn’t be all that obvious, however, and would cut down on repair costs.


    “Interesting, interesting." the not-Guild representative said while investigating the enchantments of The Chopper "It looks like the need for daily blood donation is absolutely redundant. Why it was placed on the weapon, I am unable to understand. Maybe… Hmmm… Yes, that would make sense… See, here." the representative pointed to a place on the blade. It was covered in nice swirling decorations "I wager, the donation was meant to power another enchantment, but that was never finished. Or the enchanter was incompetent. So yes, we could easily disable that feature."


    Prof decided to give Bianca''s and his armor the durability enchantment, while his own boots got the same, plus an enchantment that raised his speed a little bit. Sharpclaw''s dagger got durability and extra damage and Prof finally got around to ordering a lucky charm, made of a few pieces of loot he was lugging around for a long time. It actually didn''t give any Stats – obviously, no one could do that – but according to the mage, it slightly moved the strands of fate in his favor. Or some such mystical superstition. He was told, if he added other pieces with the help of an enchanter, the strength would be reinforced.


    The enchanting work and the services of the not-Guild came up to a bit less, than two gold marks – about the same price as the value of a finely cut, twelve-carat Chrysoberyl he had.