Msaka awoke late the next morning, having once again succumbed to the temptation to sleep in, especially after staying up most of the night. He yawned and stretched before rolling over and sitting up, mentally preparing himself for another round of casting practice. He got up and searched through his pack, pulling one of the bundles of food out, having decided that he didn't really want to be bothered going to the dining room to eat. He wanted solitude right now, both to avoid distractions and to give himself a break from constantly dealing with the people here.

He sat down on the bed again and ate. Finishing quickly, he stowed the leaves back inside his pack, not wanting to just leave them lying around in his room. Standing, he called his staff to his hand and prepared to begin his casting.

On a whim, he ran through several of his other spells first; ones that didn't involve ritual casting and wouldn't create effects that would damage the room or disturb others in the building. He didn't really feel that he needed practice with those spells, but it was somehow reassuring to know they still worked the way he expected them to. He had no reason to believe they wouldn't, of course.

That done, he repeated his task of the night before, practicing his new spells over and over again, calling his staff back everytime it disappeared. He could sense his ability with those spells slowly increasing as he did so, though it would take a few days of doing this sort of work for him to feel comfortable enough to rely on them to get the job done.

Eventually, he felt his magical reserves growing depleted, and ended his work. It would take much of the day for the energy he had expended to return, and his mood had changed from before. He now felt ready to interact with the populace of the city - at least a little bit. While he still had little use for the majority of them, though some had proven themselves at least moderately dependable. Perhaps somewhere in the city he could find something to occupy his attention for a few hours.

Pulling on his sandals, he left his room and headed to the dining area, where he paid for his room for several more days. He still had a fair amount of money left, so he didn't see a need to start summoning his trade goods just yet. The idea of turning into one of the merchants that hawked their wares in the plazas around the city wasn't particularly appealing either.

He left the inn, and crossed the plaza to the street leading away from it; none of the people he passed were offering anything of interest, so he quickly reached the plaza edge. The street was less crowded and certainly less noisy, and he took the left hand side street as he reached it. He was fairly certain he could find his way back to the plaza he had found in that direction earlier, where the duelling tournament had been going on.

With only one false turn, which he quickly realized was the wrong way and backtracked from, he managed to retrace his route back to the western plaza. Emerging through the stylized archway that opened into the western plaza, he looked around. There were still stalls to his right, where quiet business was being transacted, but the area to his right seemed to be mostly empty of people, save for a pair of men standing near the doors to the building that dominated the western end of the plaza.

The sign over the door declared that it was the Adventurers' Guild, which seemed a little odd to Msaka, as 'adventuring' didn't really seem to be a profession which was conductive to having a guild structure. Unless, of course, the place was more of a meeting spot than true guild, which seemed much more likely. Either way, it might prove an interesting place to visit, so he strolled towards the doors. The two men who were talking nearby glanced at him, but quickly lost interest and resumed their conversation.

Pushing the door open, he found it to be fairly heavy, obviously intended to be capable of withstanding blows - and from the gashes in the wood, it had certainly done so in the past. He entered the building, looking around at the interior.

The room he found himself in was fairly large, lit by both lamps and windows high up in the walls. The wall to his left was decorated with weapons, a few shields, and a couple of helmets, all of which varied from the functional to the ornate. The wall in front of him, by contrast, looked almost like a cliff face, with the occasional crack or protrusion livening up its appearance. Mats had been placed below it, and Msaka guessed that it was intended for use as a climbing apparatus of some sort. To his right, an large animal's head with a fez mounted atop it loomed over a small desk on which lay a book, inkwell, and pen. Next to that was a low, narrow bookshelf, the shelves of which were mostly empty, and a message board was mounted on the wall above it. An archway led out of the room from the far end of the right hand wall, and a door was set into the far end of the wall to his left, though the latter was presently closed.

Several cushions were set in various places around the room, as well as a bench against the far wall next to the archway. One of them was occupied by an aging man, who looked to have once been a formidable warrior, but who's only enemy at the moment appeared to be a somewhat expanded waistline. The man was lounging back against the wall behind the cushion he occupied, sleeping quietly.

Msaka couldn't decide whether the man was the host of the place or a guest within it, and decided to leave him be for the moment. He crossed the room to the archway, putting his skill at quiet movement to use, so as to avoid waking the man up. Looking through the archway, he saw another room, of similar size, with several racks of weapons around the walls, and padding on the floor. It looked very much like it might be intended for sparring, though it could certainly be used for other exercise as well.

Msaka turned and regarded the climbing wall for a moment, noting the ropes that dangled down from the top of it in various spots, then turned again, fixing his attention on the bookshelf. Once again moving stealthily, he slinked over to it, crouched down, and began scanning the titles of the few books that were on its shelves. There were a few works that appeared to be about combat, especially military strategy, and a couple that discussed the maintainence and repair of arms and armor. He also noted a thick atlas that was stored there, which he thought might well prove useful later. Another large, ancient looking book was titled, rather ambiguously, "Are you being served?"

Curious about that one, he slid it from the shelf and set it on the floor, opening it slowly so as not to strain the binding. A quick scan of several pages showed it to be a highly colorful piece of fiction about a shop in some distant land, the main point of the work seeming to be to demonstrate why it was important to not run an establishment in the manner depicted. Shaking his head, he closed the book and returned it to the shelf.

He quickly looked over the last three books. Two of them apppeared to be similarly useless, but the last one was a climbing manual, with an oddly shaped mountain surrounded by a circle sketched on the cover. Deciding that it might contain something useful, he pulled it from the shelf. He wasn't unpracticed at climbing things, being from a jungle village where the homes were built in the trees, but it certainly seemed possible that the book would cover climbing surfaces not commonly found in his home region.

He carried the book to one of the pillows and sat down cross legged, resting the book in his lap, and began reading. The material in the book did indeed turn out to include useful tips for climbing rock faces, something which he hadn't done very often, as well as other surfaces such as glaciers. He didn't consider it likely he'd have to worry about the latter, but he studied the words nonetheless. Normally, he wouldn't need to worry about climbing that much, being able to levitate, but there were always times when being able to move straight up and down wouldn't suffice to get up on top of something. The only part of the book that struck him as truly odd came near the beginning, where it mentioned in passing that "While early climbers found that success was best assured by reciting their intent before beginning their ascent, later climbers found a much simpler and every bit as effective a technique: momentarily placing one hand against the surface they wished to climb."

Still puzzled over that part, he snuck back to the bookshelf and returned the book to its place, satisfied that it had been time well spent. He glanced over at the man across the room, who had remained asleep the entire time he'd been reading. He wanted to try out the techniques the book had mentioned, but didn't see how he could do so without awakening the man in the process. "On the other hand, if he's in charge of this place, he might know more about it," he thought. "And even if not, he might be able to help me work on my fighting skills. If that fool hadn't been drunk when he threw that knife, it would have skewered my heart. I need to make certain I can react quickly enough the next time something like that happens."

He approached the man, clearing his throat and calling out, "Good morning," as he did. The man blinked and started, looking around in momentary confusion before he came fully awake.

"Oh!" the man said. "I'm sorry for not greeting you! Had a bit of a celebration last night, been sleeping it off today." He grinned sheepishly. "I've heard about your arrival, and did catch a glimpse of you last night, but never had the chance to speak with you."

"You're in charge of this place?" Msaka asked, gesturing around the room.

"I am the guildmaster here, yes," the man replied. "I must say that the place mostly runs itself, but every now and then, I find something to do. Have you come here to train?"

"That depends on what sort of training you offer," Msaka said. "I can see that you favor climbing, as well as fighting."

"Yes, I do! I have been an avid climber for as long as I can remember! Never have I found a peak I could not conquer, at least, after enough tries," the man smiled.

"Then you can instruct me in that," Msaka said. "I have just read your book about it, and want to try it out. I already knew how to climb, it has mostly been on trees and vines until now though."

"Well then, let's see how you do," the man said, pointing to the left hand side of the climbing wall. "This end is the easiest, so why don't you give it a go."

Msaka nodded, and walked up to the wall. He pulled off his sandals as he looked it over, picking out a path. Once he had done so, he began to climb. It was slow going, but he made it up to the top without too much trouble. He reached out and took hold of one of the nearby ropes, and used it to lower himself back down.

"Good, good!" the man clapped as Msaka reached the floor. "You did well there, let's try a spot that's a bit more difficult." He indicated a spot a little bit farther along the wall. "This should do nicely."

Msaka moved over to the area indicated, and began his ascent again. The guildmaster had been telling the truth when he'd said that the wall was more difficult in that area though, and he found himself having a hard time making progress. Fortunately, the guildmaster had begun calling up instructions, which Msaka did his best to follow.

He spent nearly two hours climbing the wall, slowly working his way along it as he became more confident of his ability. The guildmaster's instruction proved useful, and Msaka has progressed most of the way along the wall by the time his aching muscles forced him to stop for a rest.