Under the sun’s rays piercing through the massive lobby windows, it was evident that the handsome youth was a noble. Unmistakable were the pampered features he held—smooth and without blemish; his body, too, most likely reflected the same refinement. Blond hair groomed to perfection, blue eyes as clear as a perfect day, and leather armor with deep, rich browns— each detail refined and a compliment to his upbringing.

He was Isac Colyne, a prodigy and newcomer to the guild, yet more well-known than the ten-year veteran Banst, owing to his promising future and remarkable abilities.

“Isac!” the strawberry-blond receptionist chirped with joy.

Banst maintained an even and cool stare with Isac, despite the indignity he felt. The son of Wolf-Ranked Adventurers, Banst still held onto his pride. Being labeled a coward in the eyes and ears of many sent a rigidity through him, compelling him to take a stand.

“I’m no coward,” Banst retorted.

The pretty receptionist cast him an ugly stare. A fan of nobles, this receptionist named Fessi Feldston detested commoners, even as one herself. Only nobles and princes filled the tales she'd heard as a child of the Adventurers Guild. Their prestige and status were fitting for such an illustrious guild. Her bright blue eyes hardened. Commoners were the problem, ruining the atmosphere with their clumsy talk and unkempt appearances.

Daintily covering his mouth, Isac guffawed, “The coward dares to defend himself! My, how peculiar, given that he hid away in a shoe chest while his team was killed. If that isn’t cowardice, then what is?”

“Is there a problem?” another receptionist arrived with comely looks, though she was as well put together as any of the other receptionists.

“Helena,” Banst sighed in relief.

Helena Sunwright, the consummate professional and most respected receptionist who never strayed from her duty. The reason behind Banst’s relief was that he felt if anyone could set things right, it was Helena.

Defined lines in Helena’s face spoke of her age, in her mid-thirties, a dash of gray along one of her bangs accentuating this fact. However, her brown eyes seemed older, wiser, as if what she had seen in thirty years most others have not in fifty.

“What a storm seems to be brewing in our guild lobby,” she remarked, approaching the scene of three people locked in an argument, an audience from the line of people watching with interest, some with anger—anger toward one in particular. “Adventurer Banst, is something wrong?”

“I am being refused a quest,” Banst informed, crossing his arms and glaring at Fessi.

The strawberry-blonde winced under Helena’s gaze but explained, “He’s been ousted - blacklisted.”

“Impossible,” Helena replied with a frown, coming around Fessi to pull a parchment with Banst’s name written on it. “I see nothing here about an official blacklisting or suspension…”

Logs were then spun around to face her—ones that kept a record of the current Adventurer teams registered for quests. Silence overtook Helena as her eyes widened. Along the logs of those ranked near Banst, there was a message left by each and every one of them: “We will not party with Rabbit-Ranked Adventurer Banst Vale.”

“What is going on…?” she muttered, flipping through the logs to see the same message repeating over and over again.

“It’s because he’s a coward!” Fessi spat.

“Quiet, Fessi. You have no room to question an Adventurer.”

Fessi flinched strongly, having forgotten her place. Above all under the guild’s influence, the Adventurers Guild favored those who braved the wilderness in the guild’s name: the Adventurers. A receptionist openly disrespecting an Adventurer was considered disrespecting the guild itself.

She immediately rose from her wooden chair and bowed deeply to Banst. “My apologies, Adventurer. I forget myself.” In her words was remorse, on her face - disdain, though she hid it well enough.

“Don’t apologize to this worm,” Isac growled, stepping forward to aid Fessi, who felt warm having the handsome noble near.

“…Have I truly been blacklisted?” Banst asked Helena. Such a matter weighed much heavier than the snapping receptionist and arrogant noble.

Helena saw in reports of the tragic end to Banst’s previous quest and the complaints that had been attached to his record, most reading the same, labeling him a coward and refusing to be on a team with him.

A red line in the logs caught Helena’s attention. Reading what was written, she replied, “I’m sorry, Adventurer Banst. There seems to be only one quest suited for you, and that is defending the border against a goblin horde.” She didn’t want to bring it up, given Banst’s Rabbit Ranking, but there was nothing else. Everyone from Rabbit-Ranked to Deer-Ranked had singled him out as unwanted, giving him no other option.

Banst grew pale. A goblin horde meant a large-scale battle. Rabbit-Ranked Adventurers weren’t known to survive such massive fights.

“You could always attempt a Solo Trial…” Fessi offered, prompting a mocking grin to grow on Isac’s handsome face.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Fessi!” Helena chided, causing the young receptionist to feign innocence.

Banst quickly shook his head and rejected the offer. Solo Trials were when an Adventurer took on a quest alone. Only the foolish and truly skilled would attempt such a trial—Banst being neither of those things.

A life without a room and a life lived on the street—consequences that lay before Banst if he walked away without receiving a quest, unable to pay for his room at the Habberbatch House.

“How dare you all do this to me…!” Banst muttered under his breath, eyeing those around him—the audience of Adventurers, the eyes of Isac and Fessi gleaming back at him with derision.

“Is a Solo Trial not to your liking, coward?” Isac sneered at him, “But that is all that is available for someone as unneeded as you.” He then whispered, “Go crawl back into the hole you dug yourself out of, cowardly worm. This is a place for heroes, not inept and fearful men.”

“I am the son of Faust and Sonja Vale, Wolf-Ranked Adventurers. By God and their blood, I am no coward,” Banst roared and slammed his iron gauntlet-clad hand upon the receptionist desk. “I will join the border defense against the goblins!”

No sense of pride or turbulent emotion could make him attempt a Solo Trial. Again, Banst was no fool.

There was no time to regroup or gather one’s thoughts. The quest for the border defense was already at hand. Banst could be seen walking among other Adventurers gathered at the western city gate, awaiting departure. Dust clouds rose as carriages were being drawn to whisk away those with noble backgrounds, while those left behind had to take the less comfortable wagons.

The scene laid out the difference between statuses clearly defined among the Adventurers.

“I’ll be in one of the carriages one day,” a commoner Adventurer vowed, a fanciful carriage with gold trim seizing his sights, rolling away toward the sun against the blue backdrop of the sky.

“To have cheap transport is quite well enough for me,” Banst joked, his smile apparent in his iron helmet. “The best things in life are free, wouldn’t you say?”

The Adventurer glared at him and rudely turned his back to Banst, muttering, “Coward…”

Banst bristled. But what could he do when the same distaste for his presence rang throughout the group that remained? Even among his commoner peers, he had been deemed a less-than-worthy Adventurer.

“Dammit…” Banst cursed, climbing into a wagon by himself. None followed him, choosing to fill any other wagon that didn’t have him aboard. Besides the loneliness, the lack of companionship gave him empty time to think of the danger that lay ahead. An actual battle awaited him—a war between goblins and Adventurers. The Adventurers were sure to win, but not all of them would be returning alive; the weaker ones would fall. As one of the weaker Rabbit-Ranked individuals, Banst didn’t like his chances of surviving.

“What a beautiful day, and yet you sit as if it was raining.”

Beside Banst came a rather pretty girl with ginger hair and freckles to sit next to him. She had a playful button nose under a blanket of freckles and hazel eyes that seemed almost golden.

“…Adventurer Cindi?” Banst named the face he’d seen only a handful of times. She was known for her attractive looks despite not being a noble. An Adventurer for a year now, Cindi Applestone had made it into good teams and completed difficult quests. It was only a matter of time until she was up-ranked from Rabbit to Deer.

Leaves drifted into their wagon like childhood, with cheerful playfulness, the wind tossing Cindi’s thick ginger hair back as if teasing her. “Not so unattractive yourself, aye, Adventurer Banst? Especially this close,” Cindi joked, an impish grin playing on her shapely pink lips.

The wagon they were in was empty except for them. Room was available in the others. Why a promising Adventurer would sit with him could not be guessed at by Banst.

“Hail, Cindi,” called an Adventurer from another wagon, “Do you truly intend on teaming up with that coward?”

Banst tried to scramble out to confront the Adventurer with enough gall to disrespect him so openly when Cindi spoke first. “It’s just a sight more pretty in here than in there, Adventurer Verk,” she countered.

The Adventurer who had called out, Verk, became a point of laughter among his friends.

“I’m a herbalist,” Cindi said, turning back to Banst. “Rabbit-Ranked Healer Role.” She laughed, her tone one of self-deprecation. “I’m near useless in combat, more suited for an apothecary in the slums.” Her slim shoulders went up in a shrug. “It’s the coin that drives me to be an Adventurer, not heroics.” Cindi’s vulnerability nearly made Banst reach out for her. A quick laugh later, she straightened herself out. “My apologies, Adventurer Banst. I lost myself for a moment. Would you care to team up with me? I know how it feels to be singled out because one’s lack of strength.”

Her exposing her insecurities had left Banst without a choice but to accept her.

“Of course,” Banst agreed.

“That is most welcome news.” She gave him a fervent nod. “In actuality, I have a team already waiting for me at the border.”

“Then why would you ask me to team up…”

“Because I know how hard things can be for those with less power than others.” Her hazel eyes shrank as a smile grew on her freckled face. “I apologize if I’m too forward.”

“Not at all,” Banst scratched the back of his head. “And, thank you.”

Banst had not known women could be so charming as Cindi. Their trip together was one filled with intriguing conversation about the state of the guild, Marlinen’s politics, and the nature of monsters. Laughter was also shared aplenty, both Banst and Cindi sharing a common sense of humor, having been lackluster in their respective Adventurer roles and deriving from it a self-deprecating and sometimes dark humor.

An open field along a river bank with a single bridge that ran across it was their site of battle. Beyond the bridge was a town that, along with many near it, had requested the assistance of the Adventurers Guild. For unknown reasons, goblins had gathered en masse near the Cussot Cliff Pass that separated the Kingdom of Marlinen and the Dukedom of Gilum.

Banst hadn’t noticed until he leapt off the wagon that he hadn’t stopped smiling for quite some time. Cindi’s beautiful visage moving so carefree set a fire in him, skipping along wildflowers, her ginger hair vibrant against the endless grass. He couldn’t recall a time when he had felt so attached to someone.

“This way,” Cindi urged, pulling him by his hand. “My team said they’d set up camp in the northeast part of the field.”

The sound of a bell rang through the air.

“Hear me, Adventurers!” an Adventurer cried out in a booming voice, swinging a bell up and down. “The goblins have moved sooner than anticipated. To arms! Battle is nigh!” He continued on and on, stirring people who sat idle in camp and rousing them to action.

“Sooner than we thought,” Cindi worried. “Come, Banst. Let us go to my team’s camp and group up. There’s no telling what will happen from now on.”

Banst followed her steps through a patch of woods when he had to pull back. Beyond the trees, where the clearing opened up again, there lay a group of Adventurers inside a camp. It was all as Cindi had said it would be except Banst recognized one of them.

Leaning against the trunk of a tree was the man in black, the man who had tried to hunt Banst in the Drenching District.