“Look man, I’m really sorry but our team is already full,” said the latest adventurer he asked. With that, he officially ran out of people to try and convince to let him tag along on a quest.
This was bad. Aaron didn’t know who else he should ask. He had already spoken to every group that had entered the adventurer halls in the last two days. It was so bad that he even started to notice whispers that were shared between others. It was already hard enough to find others to team up with as a dwarf, and rumours certainly wouldn’t help him.
Aaron left the guild building to get some fresh air as he saw the sun slowly vanishing behind the buildings. He didn’t have much time left. Aaron couldn’t stay to wait for the return of questing parties the next day as they probably wouldn’t even want to move out again that quickly.
Aaron took a stroll around the streets surrounding the adventurer guild as he absentmindedly thought about solutions to his predicament.
It had already turned dark when a sudden voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “Hey! You’re that dwarf from the guild. What are you doing here?”
Aaron turned around to see a very tall human woman as she walked up to him. Her long brunette hair moved gently in the afternoon wind. “Uhm, you’re that receptionist, right? I was just gathering my thoughts a bit. What about you, why are you here?”
“Oh, I’m on my way home. My shift just ended. The name is Sibill, by the way.”
“Oh yeah, I kind of lost track of the time. I’m Aaron, nice to meet you.”
She looked him up and down and asked, “So, why is it that you try so desperately to team up with other groups? I saw you running around the whole afternoon, it looked silly. Do you want to buy something or what?”
Aaron looked sheepishly around before he answered, “Kind of, why?”
“No, I was just wondering why you wouldn’t do solo quests if you are that desperate?” Sibill looked bewildered as she voiced her thoughts.
“What? solo quests? What’s that?”
“The quests that you do alone? They are generally easier than other quests, but the danger is still way higher than when you work in a group. But you should know this already; it’s mentioned in the introduction process when you apply to be an adventurer.” She now looked genuinely concerned.
“I never heard of that? When I had my introduction, they only gave me my medallion and mentioned the confirmed and unconfirmed quests.”
“What? What about the ascension path? Do you even know that there are different ranks?” Sibill implored, bewildered.
“I mean, I do know that there are different ranks, but I just thought that that would be explained to me when I got there. It’s not like we have many rank-ups in this town.” He now wondered, what else did he not know?
The guild receptionist sighed deeply before she replied, “Alright, then I will explain. But listen carefully because I really want to get home and not stay in this cold longer than I have to.” After receiving a quick nod, she started. “I will just recite the speech you normally get. Let’s start with the most important thing to know: ranks. There are five ranks, with the lowest on the list being the bele rank.” She pointed to the medallion on Aaron’s belt. “New adventurers start on that. It doesn’t matter if you are already plenty strong, you still start on that one.”
She levelled her eyes to look directly into his eyes and said, “Do not make the mistake many newbies make and equate the strength of someone to their adventurer rank. It might indicate their strength but never rely on it. I mean it.”
Sibill only continued after Aaron broke the eye contact. “A thing you already know is that after you complete a quest, you always have to write a quest report. For most of the quests you can currently do, you won’t have to write much in the way of details. But if you ever rank up, the requirements for the reports also grow. After completing a number of quests, the guild director can send a file with all your completed quest reports to one of the headquarters. Here in Sakrosa you can find it in the capital. Once the file is there, a council looks through it and votes on whether you deserve a chance to complete a rank up quest.”
The woman stopped again as if to gather her thoughts. “I’m not allowed to explain how a rank up quest works but you will get all the information you need before then.”
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“Alright, but what about the other ranks? I mean I know of sile, but I have no ideas about the others.”
“The ranks above bele are sile, gale, rile, and aile. As you might know, our city even has a few sile rank adventurers. The others aren’t really important, as you will probably never see them unless you are somewhere you really ought not to be.” Sibill yawned before continuing, “One more thing, tell me what you know about the confirmed and unconfirmed quest boards?”
“Well, the confirmed quests are quests where the guild has done an initial investigation and adjusted the rank of the quest. They also often pay less but are generally safer. As for with the unconfirmed ones, the guild hasn’t done any investigation whatsoever and only works with the information the employer gave them. The pay and risk are often way higher. I never really cared about which one I would complete, I just went with whoever needed an extra person.”
“Your knowledge seems fine; you only forgot one thing. Unconfirmed quests are sometimes used by bandits or others to scam, rob, or otherwise harm adventurers. You should be more cautious when completing them. I’m serious.” Sibill quickly turned her head to hide a look of sadness.
It took her a bit to compose herself before she looked at Aaron again. “I’m going to bed now. I have a morning shift, and I want to be well-rested when I help others decide on quests that hopefully don’t kill them. I can show you the book with the solo quests and help you find one that suits your style, if you would like.”
Aaron was really thankful that Sibill would help him. “That would be wonderful; I will be there early in the morning. Just one last thing: if you had these solo quests, why are they not displayed on the boards?”
“It’s because we observed that the death rate among our newer adventurers drastically fell every time there was one available. They are displayed on the boards for the sile adventurers, though. Now, I wish you a good night and hope that you can buy what got you so desperate.” Sibill turned around and quickly started to make her way to the other side of the street.
“Good night! And thank you for all the information; I’m really grateful for your help,” Aaron shouted after her. It seemed like the talk about unconfirmed quests soured her mood.
After thanking the woman, Aaron decided that he should also head home if he wanted to wake up early tomorrow to save as much time as possible.
He headed back to his room and promptly fell asleep. It seemed like the more Aaron had on his plate, the easier it was to fall asleep.
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Aaron stirred as the first sunrays fell on his face. First things first, he went to the bathhouse to wash himself and his clothes. After he finished rinsing off the sweat that accumulated over the night, Aaron went back to his lodging to don new clothes. He also decided to don his armor.
The torso was secured by a short-sleeved leather vest made of overlapping layers of hardened leather. Metal studs were worked into the material for extra protection, while also not increasing the weight too much. The inside was padded with a very soft material. Aaron thought that it might have been wool, but he wasn’t sure. While the armor extended upwards to protect his neck, his arms were bare. He didn’t think that this would be a big problem as dwarves had naturally hard skin, but if he ever had more money, he would look into getting something.
Aaron also had a wide leather belt that acted as a girdle. He was able to attach pouches to the belt to carry around supplies. Leather tassets with metal studs hung from the belt to protect the upper thighs. His legs were protected by leather greaves and small, flexible panels of studded leather.
After Aaron put everything on, he hooked the last object he forged before leaving his home under the mountains to his back. It was a warhammer that had already seen better days. The continued use without good service took its toll on the weapon. Still, it was enough for what he was planning on doing.
He made is way to the adventurers guild under the watchful gazes of other citizens. Aaron wasn’t sure if some of them were part of this conspiracy. While it didn’t sit right with him, Aaron decided to put it out of his mind as he couldn’t really do anything against them right now.
He already heard Sibill as he entered the guild, “Aaron! Hey! Ready to select your quest?”
Aaron quickly walked over to her. “Hey Sibill, yeah I am. What do you have in store for me?”
“Alright, I looked into your preferred equipment and I think I found something that you might like,” she said with a smile on her face. “There is a quest about slaying wolves in the forest. With your magic and your equipment it should be doable.”
“That sounds great! What’s the pay?” Aaron was growing excited.
“Two silecoin per slain wolf. But you need to be careful, it’s an unconfirmed quest.”
“Two silecoin?!” With this he could finally pay of the debt. It might even put a stop to this weird conspiracy he found himself in.
A bit of his desperation must have shown on his face as Sibill quickly said, “I know I said that you might like it, but I would still like it if you chose another quest. The employer said that one of his lumberjacks thought he felt a bit of magic lingering around one of the sites they were spotted. It’s only a solo quest because he said that there wasn’t much.”
“Do you have any quests that pay nearly as much?” Aaron asked, even though he already knew the answer.
Sibill shook her head. “No, sadly I don’t. For the estimated time this quest would take, the pay is astronomical. Frankly, the only reason it’s still here is that it’s a solo quest and fairly fresh.”
“Then you know I have to take it. I get that it’s dangerous, but I have to do it. Please.” Aaron looked into her eyes as he pleaded.
After a moment that seemed to stretch way longer than it was, Sibill finally relented. “Alright, but please be careful. I don’t want another dead adventurer due to a dumb quest.”
“I will do my best.” Aaron smiled as he picked up the quest paper and walked out of the guild. He started making his way over to the nearest exit in the city walls.
He finally had a chance again. With this, he might even be able to turn his life around and achieve what he had set as a goal before he had even left his family’s home.