It took Krim twenty minutes to finally work his way back to the reception desk. Clearly word had spread about his test as every room he entered he got harsh looks. 'It was just a bit of slime, her fault for opening her mouth really.'

Bargus and Fredd were sitting in the same seats but sweat was dripping off of them and their clothes were far dirtier than before. “What took you so long?” Bargus asked and handed Krim a cup of water as he sat.

“I got lost on the way back, there was a bit of an issue with my examiner.”

Bargus laughed and wiggled his arms at him. “Did you try and feel her up with your tentacles.”

“Not exactly.” before Krim could explain further the elderly receptionist called them over. She had necklaces with wooden tags on them. The tags had their name, a zero showing their rank and the word KRIEF in capital letters showing which town the came from. 'Need to know where to send the body' Krim thought darkly

“Try not to loose these, we charge for replacements. Now there's a few things we need to discuss before I let you loose on the world.” she settled back down on her chair and turned to Krim “Aisha has filed a formal complaint against you.”

“What!” he shouted 'This is ridiculous.'

“Hold your horses and let me finish, several witness's have already described what happened and its clear you didn't do anything inappropriate” she said quickly to head him off. Fredd and Bargus were staring at him with mock horror.

“However, the guild master has ordered you to be put on probation for the month.” she continued but Krim cut her off, “For what? All I did was fight her, she shouldn't have opened her mouth.”

She gave him a cold look that made him shrink back a bit “If you interrupt me again young man I'll show you what a real fight is. Aisha is the Guild masters granddaughter and you put your slime in her mouth. The guildmasters a traditional sort amd takes offence to that kind of thing.”

Krim just shook his head and grabbed the necklace from the desk, 'Aleast I'm in the guild, I just need to avoid her for a month' he thought, only half listening the the receptionist explain the ranking system he already knew about.

“Everyone starts at wood zero and climbs up to wood nine, after that they do the same through the other ranks, Tin, Iron, Bronze, Silver and finally Gold. Take a job from the board and bring it to me when your ready.”

The three of them walked over to the large board but they ignored the majority of it. They could only accept jobs ranked wood four and below until the proved themselves. Krim scanned the small wood ranked section but it was mostly simple deliveries. “Can we take more than one?” he asked Fredd who'd been actually listening to the old woman.

“Yeah but no more than three, did you actually slime her in the mouth?” he asked while studying the board. Krim let out a long sigh and grabbed a piece of paper to read it closer.

“I flicked my slime at her and she opened her mouth, it really wasn't that big of a deal.” he said and returned the poor paying job to deliver a letter back.

“What did you do after that?” Fredd asked still curious.

“I wrapped her up in hit her on the head with my stick.” That was too much for Bargus who choked on his water.

“Disturbing mental image aside. You're not getting the bigger picture here, I'm assuming there were a lot of people out there the same as my test?” he asked, Krim nodded and he continued “Well then its obvious. She's embarrassed a complete beginner beat her, everyone seeing it happen made it worse and finally.” he paused for effect letting the silence drag on. “You made her swallow your slime.” He and Fredd were snickering like school boys while Krim tried his best to ignore them.

Krim really didn't find it funny plus being put on probation had completely soured his day. They each picked a job each. One was to clear an area of brush and minor monsters for a new farm, Krim and Bargus would handle the critters while Fredd dealt with the plants. The next two were deliveries to the same village with the new farm. The jobs wouldn't make them rich but they would pay enough for them to buy some second hand weapons and should only take a day or two at the most.

They let Fredd speak with the receptionist since Krim was thoroughly done dealing with the guild officials, she handed him some dried trail rations that were apparently traditionally given to first time adventurers and a few minutes later they headed out on their first adventure. Krim asked them about their tests while they headed through the outskirts of town.

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It turned out there was a second large training yard were Fredd and Bargus took their test which was geared more towards ranged and magical attacks but had a lot of grass which let Fredd show off his skill. Instead of sparring they had simply used their boons against training dummies. “I thought you said they were making the tests harder?” Krim asked Bargus.

“Guess it used to be really easy to join.” he suggested with a shrug.

Once the town was out of sight they all felt a bit more on edge. This was roughly as far as anyone from the town would travel without an escort. The guards maintained a safe zone but that was only relative to the monster infested wildlands.

Since there was no one else around Krim let his tentacles out and searched for some good sticks or branches. 'I wish I'd been able to afford a real spear.' he thought for the hundredth time. Weapons in Krief cost a fortune since there was only one smith who would made them in any quantity. Unfortunately that meant the man had a monopoly on the small market. 'Their not even well made!' He was sure they'd find better weapons for less money in any city but the closest city Triton was two weeks away on horseback.

A loud snap to their right had all three of them jumping and raising their hand, vines and tentacles. Krims heart thudded in his chest as he scanned the forest, there were more snaps and a loud grunting noise that echoed around them. “Where is it.” he asked struggling to stay calm, his tentacles waving erratically.

“There!” Fredd shouted out pointing just passed a thick stand of bushes. A confused deer was chewing some leaves while eyeing the three adventurers. “Damn” Bargus laughed. “I could barely even breath there.”

Just as they started to relax a huge feathered blur leapt onto the back of the deer causing it to snap and the deer to scream. Krim winced at the horrible sounds the dying animal was making but grew out more tentacles. He let them lift him slightly off the ground, no longer relying on his feet gave him a wider and more stable base to swing his other tentacles. Holding his arms close out of the way he thickened and elongated the others down his sides and put himself in front of the others. “Fredd see if you can tie up its legs once it spots us. Bargus, cook it but try not to set the forest on fire.”

Seeing the enemy in front of him felt completely different to the fear of a hidden enemy. Fear of the unknown he guessed. He was still afraid of getting hurt or even killed but now he could at least fight back.

The bird thing was roughly two meters tall and had a long bald neck, and a body like a dandelion with dark grey feathers instead of fluffy seeds. Its legs made up half its size and looked like they could kill a man with a single kick. The monster squawked and cocked it head to the side, staring at them. For a second it looked like it might just eat its meal but it wouldn't eat with them so close it sprinted right at them.

Fredd grabbed at its legs with twisted ropes of grass but the powerful stride of the bird tore them apart. Krim lashed at it but his slime had no effect against the the birds feathers. He managed to wrap one around hit neck just as Bargus let loose a wave of heat. It scorched the bird causing the grey feathers to curl and melt, it also burnt Krims tentacle and he screamed in pain. He could feel it as if it had been his real arm and he retracted the ruined tentacle all the way back into himself.

The source of the pain was gone but the memory of it wouldn't leave his head. The monster was within punching distance in the blink of an eye and he loosed tentacles from everywhere all at once out of panic, most were stopped by his clothes like during the test but this time everywhere included his face.

The descending beak was muzzled and held inches away while the rest of Krims tentacles wrapped around the monsters scorched body, it squealed as his tentacles continued to coil around it like a serpent. Suddenly remembering its clawed feet he reached a few tendrils down but Fredd had managed to trap the the now stationary creature.

Krim tried to talk but the tentacles coming from his lips made it impossible. Now this is disgusting. Slowly he crushed its body and once a few bones snapped the rest caved in seconds later.

Once he'd unravelled himself Krim inspected the body. It was a complete mess, he doubted they would even be able to eat the meat since he had burst its internal organs.

“That could of went worse.” Fredd said with forced enthusiasm. Krim just shot him a look before turning to Bargus who spoke first.

“I'm sorry, I just panicked and attacked. I didn't even think about your tentacles feeling pain.”

Krim could see the sincere regret in his face and took a deep breath to calm himself . “It's fine, it only hurt for a second and we all panicked. What even is that thing?” he asked Bargus who had the most knowledge about monsters, mostly from his dads old stories.

“Choran. Their common around here and easy to kill compared to most things. The guard barely even considers them a monster.” he said glumly and gave the charred creature a kick.

“We did kill it pretty fast, Next time we should be able to fight it better.” Fredd said trying to encourage them.

“Yeah.” Krim agreed “Next time we'll know what were up against. You can trap them before they start running and I'll try to stay back until it gets close so Bargus can roast them.”

With everyone on the same page they continued on their way and kept to the road. Barely an hour later a pair of Chorans charged out of the forest alerting the team with loud squawks. This time Krim stayed to the side while Bargus loosed a wave of heat hitting both birds in the chest. As they came to a screaming halt Fredd wrapped up their legs.

Now Krim moved in for the kill and wrapped tentacles around their necks quickly strangling them to death barely giving them a chance to flap their wings.

“That was perfect!” Fredd cheered “We should take the them with us to the village, we can sell them for extra money.” Krim couldn't help smiling at Fredds relieved excitement. 'He was so worried he couldn't be useful.' Krim wrapped the monsters up in a tentacle and let them hang behind him in case they were attacked again, which they were.

It was only another hour to the village but they were attacked twice more by lone birds resulting in Krim dragging four of the things behind him as they walked into the village of Opton.