AN: Yo, your lazy author present you chapter 22 :D. Enjoy!!
PR by Zenla, the royal proofreader
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It's my 11th year in this world and I look like a 14 years old boy. Muriem will soon turn 15 and Kerrina, 12. Speaking of her, during the last 2 months of winter her body started to mature. Her bust and butt got more alluring, and she will probably grow more. As for Muriem, with all the training she went through she has become well toned, and her chest grew a little as well, she is quite hot. Those 2 started to get the attention of other boys, but few tried to get their attention, and those few idiots naturally got ignored.
This year I will join the adventurer guild. While adventurers mostly deal with investigations, monsters subjugation and exploration, mercenaries deal mostly with bodyguarding and escort jobs or bounty hunting. Adventurer and mercenaries share the same ranking, from the lowest to the highest: F, E, D, C, B, A (rare), S (handfull per continent) and X (legendary). There was only 1 man in history that reached rank X, he was an omdian who was said to be very meticulous, pragmatic, emotionless.
The Frontier is a wild place, full of dangerous beasts and monsters. One example is the razorbak that attacked Argot a few years back. Encountering them in the wilderness will be a lot more dangerous, and they aren't the strongest monsters. Beasts and monsters have a ranking similar to that of the adventurers and mercenaries: F, E, D, C (highest rank for beasts), B, A, S (disaster) and X (cataclysm), though there are no records of X rank monsters.
People usually need more than one person to deal with a beast or a monster with the same rank as them, and the higher the rank, the more peope are needed. For example, a F rank person can deal with an F rank beast or monster by himself, but you would need 4 C rank people to deal with a C rank beast or monster. That depend on the type of beast/monster you are dealing with and your personl ability.
What I want to do is scout the Frontier area near Argot for valuable minerals and ores. Most adventurers map the area, record what they discover about the beasts and monsters, their habits and territory, and they look for ruins. That's right, ruins of an ancient civilisation. Those ruins are found on all continents, and are very, very old. Some can contain a few valuable materials, the bigger ones are often inhabited by strong monsters but remnants of magical devices can be retrieved.
Not a single one of those artefacts were found in one piece, but they hint that this ancient civilisation was more advanced than the currents ones, in every field. The differents countries of the world are very interested in those, and give nice rewards to the ones who discover them. Their scholars, mages and crafters must be spending a lot of time studying them, trying to understand and reproduce their magic and technology. I'm not interested in those ruins yet, but it would definitly be nice to find one of them.
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I've been busy the last 2 weeks. I made almost all my equipment by myself: greaves, brigandine, gauntlets, barbute, a new short bow, a hatchet and a khukuri. I got a little help from Old Johrgard, mostly for the barbute and the khukuri. My gear is quite good for a beginner adventurer. I also reinforced my staff with hollow iron cylinders, and they are thicker on the extremities with small spikes for increased damage. I will be dealing with beasts and monsters, no place for mercy there. I bought the pickaxe, I wanted a good quality one.
Now that everything is ready, to the adventurer guild!
The next day early in the morning...
Aenthar: «Good mornin... Hey, if it isn't Nana!! How are you doing?»
Nana: «Little Aenthar? What are you... No, I understand, you came here to register?»
Aenthar: «Yup!!»
That's right, Nana work part time at the adventurer guild as either a receptionist or a nurse.
Nana: «Sight... Hey Aenthar, I'm sure you know how dangerous the Frontier can be. I know you're a strong and capable boy for your age, but this old woman has seen many promising youths leave and never come back...»
Aenthar: «You don't have to worry about that much, I have good senses and I intend to avoid battles as much as possible. You could say that I'm just stealthly scouting the area!»
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Nana: «Come on little Aenthar, I've seen you being born and watched you grow, you're like a grandson for me, of course I would be worried! Whatever, let's get the formalities over.»
Aenthar: «Go ahead.»
Nana: «Fill this form first, while you're at it I'll tell you the basic rules. You will start as an F rank adventurer. By completing missions, bringing proofs of monster kills and materials to sell, you get points. You can also earn points by bringing new informtion about an area or a new monster. Once you've earned enough points, your rank will increase.»
Aenthar: «So far so good!»
Nana: «It's would be possible for you to start at E rank judging by your abilities, but you must pass a test for that and remote branch guilds aren't allowed to let people take them, too bad for you.»
Aenthar: «Looks like you're happy about it, because your little boy won't start with higher ranked missions... Not like I mind, you know, I'm rather happy.»
Nana: «... *cough* You can only take missions from the same rank as your adventurers rank, one rank below and one rank above. Of course, missions above your rank grant more points and missions below your rank grant less points. You get penalities for failing or cancelling a mission, meaning the points you should have earned will be deduced and you must pay a fourth of the reward offered for the mission.»
Aenthar: «It must be nice for some people to take missions above their rank to fail and pay for it... With their money or their life...»
Nana: «It's really good to see you're always thinking about what can happen... I feel a lot better. Anyway, since you finished with the form, give it back, I'm going to prepare your adventurer card, and the fee is 30 copper coins by the way.»
Aenthar: «Here! Hey, how about paying the fee for me as a welcome gift?»
Nana: «Nope. Business is business!! Wait for a bit»
… … ...
Nana: «Here it is. Your adventurer informations are engraved on it, so that the members of other guilds can keep track of your advancement. If you lose your card you must go to the last guild you were in order to get a new card, which will cost 1 silver. After all, it would be the last place where information about your rank would be stored, and we keep it for 4 months.»
Aenthar: «That's good to know. So after 4 months, the unlucky adventurer must start from scratch, or pass a test for starting at a higher rank, or hope the people there remember about him and his rank before leaving.»
Nana: «Exactly! Now that we're done with the formalities, please do tell me why you're here alone.»
Aenthar: «What do you mean by that?»
Nana: «Little Aenthar, you're always with Kerrina or Muriem, or both of them!! I'm surprised you didn't come to register with them! By the way, which one of those 2 is your favorite?»
Aenthar: «I didn't register with them because I want them to train a little more, especially Muriem. As for which one is my favorite, I like them both very much. Now if you'll excuse me, I feel that it's time to make my escape. Until next time!!»
And Aenthar left the building at a fast pace.
Nana: «... … … Hahahahahaha!! That boy is really something. I hope he doesn't get into trouble with women later.»
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I don't plan on going deep in the Frontier right away, I will start by the areas that are already known, with relatively low ranked opponents, scanning them and hunting a few beasts and monsters on the way. It's also on a good way to get used to moving around while searching for something specific with my mana sense. I took 3 days off from the smithy and already warned my friends and family. I even told them which areas I would visit. Time for a 3 days trip in the wilderness.
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AN: Must be the longest dialog I've written... I'll have to write more dialogs in the future, and my chapters will get a little longer I guess... I know dialogs bring more life/depth (or something like that) to the caracters, but I don't like writing them... *sigh* ... I'm happy my mc will be alone for a bit