The sun gently dipped below the line that Zen could see, until what was left was merely a faint glow above the horizon, shedding the remaining amounts of its light into the world before it would go dark. He was still quite shaken and winded from the events of a few moments ago, and Devan was fast asleep, head leaned to his left, snoring like a bullhorn.

It was quite nice, Zen thought, as he looked up and saw the faint twinkle of the stars overhead. He wondered, if the world he was from had such amazing technologies, there must be a way to get to the stars? Maybe some had already done it, and maybe, he could go up there too. He’d just have to prepare for the moment, and learn more about the world.

The surrounding tall grass, packed with grains and fluffy bulbs, were slowly getting darker and darker from the diminishing sunlight. He could hear the chatter of distant birds and rodents, and the hum of little insects. He had enough of insects. He was so tired. He just wanted to flop on a bed and go to sleep.

In the distant, just over a small incline, Zen saw it, and silently whooped for joy. The brick and mortar walls of Tampatown, with its torches on the parapet glowing a warm light over the landscape, was an amazing sight to see. Guards paced about the exterior and along the top. There appeared to be a guard checkpoint, where he could clearly see a pair of guards checking the credentials of another prairie cart in front of them.

Zen glanced back at the carriage he was driving, and grimaced. What would the guards think of their crazy engineering concoction? It had to be a refugee build made from hell, with all of the loose reinforcement boards and hastily crafter roof spikes. And all of the turrets. They would probably think he was planning on raiding the place. He gulped.

Eventually, he slowly guided the carriage towards the entrance, where the guards stood, clearly waiting for the last carriage for the day so they could go on break. It didn’t seem like he was in control of the carriage at all. More like it seemed the horses knew what they were doing more than Zen knew himself. So when the brutally messed up defense carriage made its way in front of the confused guards, the cart stopped immediately.

“Wow! Look at what dragged in here!” One guard said to the right. “What are you doing coming in looking like you came from a war?”

“Uh… It’s because I did come in through… a skirmish.” Zen said softly. The boot of the carriage was enclosed on the left and right sides with reinforced ironwood, which was already falling apart. Zen gave it a shove, and the paneling to his right fell away instantly, hitting the packed dirt with a clatter.

“Uh… Sorry?” Zen said, not knowing why he apologized.

“Don’t fret.” The right handside guard chuckled. “Now, do you have any credentials?”

“Uh… hang on.” Zen nudged and prodded Devan, who was still sleeping to his left. Eventually, his eyes began to slightly open.

“Come on Devan, wake up. I don’t have any credentials on me.” Zen urgently whispered into his ear. He groaned. Zen insisted.

“Is that… The Devan I heard you talk to?” the guard on the right side asked. “May… I see him? He’s kind of my hero.”

“Oh…” Zen said, turning back to the guard, who had his coworker in tow. “Sure I guess. We just need access to the city.”

“Well if you have Devan with you, you must be here for a reason!” the left hand side guard said.

“Okay, okay, I’m awake.” Devan said, holding his head and ruffling his brown hair. “Alright, yes. Look at me, the expert hero and adventurer Devan. You probably want to ask me my life story, but me and my accomplice are really tired, and we could use a bite to eat and some rest. And I see you two, Jeryll and Tanniss. Here’s my name on these pre-written pieces of parchment, and my ID so you know I’m me.”

“Sweet!” the duo said, taking the parchment scraps and looking over the identification card, a sleek and gold detailed sky blue card. “Damn look at this guy, S Rank. So cool.”

“Can we go in now?” Devan said, clearly starting to get frustrated. As much as Zen wanted to head in as well, he didn’t want to be too harsh with the fanboy guards. And to be honest, he’s not the one famous here. He has no say in this conversation.

“Of course, of course.” The guards said, who were beaming so much that they could relight the night sky. “I believe there’s someone waiting for you next to the gate entrance. Not sure what it’s about, but it seems urgent. Go on through.”

Devan swiftly took his card from Jeryll, the left side guard’s hand, wiped it on his waist coat and tucked it into his breast pocket. Then he picked up the reins slightly giving the horses the signal to clop through. Just on the sides of the inner wall right next to the entrance, both of them could clearly see a black hooded figure to their right.

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The hooded figure made a various amount of hand figures and signals to Devan, who nodded. The figure moved behind a pile of crates and barrels, disappearing into the supplies and infrastructure.

“Was that the guy we needed to talk to? Didn’t seem like much talking.” Zen said to Devan.

“Yeah. He’s an agent from the local militia. Probably doesn’t want to cause a stir by talking out loud or quietly with world famous adventurer Devan.”

“You’re famous?” Zen smirked sarcastically.

“Thought you’d know that by now.”

“And what’s with the ranking system? Is S rank relatively high?”

“S rank?” Devan replied. “S rank is the second to highest rank of all adventurers. The ranking goes from F rank to S+ Rank, S+ being the highest. The higher your rank, the more complex and dangerous jobs you can take. You gain more points and cash if you do harder quests. When you get started, you’ll be given the D rank. F ranks are only given to those who have failed enough to get this role, or done minor crimes and such. In this phase, they must do quests for free to earn their right back into the D rank. And if you’re worried that some people may be stupid and do some major damage? Don’t worry, there’s surveillance.”

“As you may have heard, I am an S rank. An S ranker is generally an extremely strong and powerful adventurer, with near limitless power under their belt. And since I’m a scientist minoring in engineering, that’s like, insanely more impressive, because generally the engineer and the scientist class are support roles. So if you meet an A ranked gunslinger versus an A ranked scientist, the scientist probably has way more skill. There are very few S+ rankers, and those who are are almost revered like gods. I remember one time we had to put down a cult because they were sacrificing goats and people to the almighty and powerful Gunnijer, an insanely skilled S+ Rank gunslinger.”

“Did he like the gesture?” Zen asked. He already knew the answer though.

“God no. Or… I actually don’t know. He’s not from the area, and comes from the once Nordic snow areas. You know, since most Moros are in cryo-vaults. He’s quite cold if you rank high enough to meet him. However the populace only really know of his power, where one time he parted the clouds with this massive sniper rifle of his. But here’s the thing. His younger brother, who’s a C Rank engineer, built that. But Gunnijer didn’t give him any credit. I’m pretty sure he even took it from his little brother’s workshop. Essentially stole it. When he tried to get it back, he was shunned for being a hater. Even his older brother didn’t acknowledge him.”

“That is… really terrible. Is it because he’s one of the seventy-five percentile of Moros that are psychopaths?” Zen asked.

“Could be. I don’t know. Moros with painblocker implants can be support roles and Moros without them can choose to go for the more combat oriented roles. But that’s why sometimes I don’t like high ranking meetups. It’s like a dog pile of celebrities. Everyone is gossiping about what you talked about with this other celebrity and trying to draw your face or ask for your autograph. And when you make one small fuck up, the press and the media get up all over your ass. Wish I had known that sooner.” Devan sighed, tugging the reins so the horses clopped at a slightly slower pace. Oil street lamps began lighting up, and walking citizens began taking notice of him in the beat up siege vehicle. Heads turned. People stopped and stared.

“Here comes the stares of a hundred hungry attention seekers.” Devan groaned. Zen felt seriously bad for him. So he grabbed a cloth sheet from the back and held it in front of the right side, which had the carriage boot’s right side reinforcement knocked off. Thanks to him.

Seemed celebratory status seriously sucked, so maybe Devan could disguise himself in like a suit? Maybe he’d be less targeted? No wait, but he’d appear like a total wackjob looking like a cosplayer character searching for attention. A guy in a dark mask in adventurer’s gear and a billowing cape? He’d get even more attention. But he wanted to go around the area wearing his normal face. It was kind of the easiest option here.

“You don’t have to do that.” Devan said lightly. “Being an adventurer isn’t all bad, and we’re like the top 1% of all adventurers. Most of the adventurers you’ll meet won’t be able to reach as far as some of the most diligent and dedicated, and maybe some may even want to stay in the lower tiers to remain as a mentor or just relax in humbleness.”

“Be like me, when I was a wee lad adventurer. Just got the C rank, and I went on my first extermination quest. Had to clear out a small cave filled with some tallstriches. If you don’t know what those are, they’re these arctic black and white seabirds with long extended knees and black stilt legs. And their aquatic flippers are replaced with these really disturbing human hands. Despite this, they are not sentient, and are pretty easy to take down if you hit them, stab them, or cut them down. They’re dangerous when in an open field, because, well… imagine a whole pack of them sprinting at you with their hands outstretched to wring your neck.”

“Well turns out that these specific birds have been training in kicking, so I got my ass beat, crumpling to the floor like a sack of haystraw. Luckily, I learned my lesson and just shot them from a long distance with arrows. Just because I’m a scientist doesn’t mean I can’t use basic fighting equipment. And look at me now. Even though we could probably still get beaten to death if our enemies tried hard enough, we can now divebomb leviathans like a baller.”

“Wow,” Zen said. “Those birds are something I don’t want to think about. What’s a leviathan?”

“Oh they’re these giant quadrupedal beasts that walk really slowly around the mountainous areas of the world. Huge bastards. Could range from about the size of one of these houses,” Devan said, waving his hand to one of the Tudor style brick and mortar roofed houses, “to the size of a mountain or two. Since they walk so slow, you can probably walk under it’s foot and still have about thirty minutes to spare before you’re in real trouble. No one wants to fight them as toppling one over would probably end the world. Not that I’ve tried.” Devan clearly winked at Zen, giving him a shudder.

“Anyways, we’re here.” Devan said, kicking down his side of broken ironwood reinforcement. “Come on. We need some good night's rest and a bite to eat before we do anything important tomorrow.”

“Where are we?” Zen asked, looking his head around the place, knowing full well that many people’s eyes were still on them. He glanced around at all the buildings, until his eyes lay on a large Tudor style building with a canopy cloth front, glass windows, an upper floor with balconies and a looming adobe brick clad roof.

“Is that the one?” Zen asked, pointing towards it.

“Yep. The good old tavern. Has a nice sleeping lodge and has some pretty good drinks. The largest one in town, and has the best food around. We’re going to go in and out, get us some food, and get some rest.”

Zen nodded, going over to the door, with Devan in tow. He just looked tired, and wanted to get things over with. Despite the massive popularity gap that Zen had just learned about, he felt sympathy for him. He gingerly opened the door, only for it to be forcefully opened, startling him and pushing both Devan and Zen to the hard cobblestone floor.

“Hey hey! Look who it is!” A booming and powerful but also feminine voice rang out from within the tavern, practically shaking the windows, the walls, and the entire area within a five block radius.

“Oh no.” Devan whispered, shrinking back behind Zen.

“Who is it?” Zen asked Devan, watching him cower behind him, trying not to be spotted.

“Wendrau Migyuaer. The S+ Ranked adventurer of the pre-industrial regions.”