The sun beat down on Ezra’s skin. The air was hot, humid, and heavy—hard to breathe in, pushing on Ezra like a sweltering prison. Every couple seconds, a loud thundercrack would sound out followed by a blast of air that scattered dust and stone onto the streets.

Ezra paid no attention to all of this. He focused on dashing toward the source of the chaos.

One man ran toward the city gates.

“Run, run! Flee for your lives!”

He ran by so quickly that he nearly tripped before regaining his balance. Off to the side, a man and a woman dressed in thick robes headed toward an inferno. The man summoned a ball of water before the woman manipulated it and scattered it around the affected areas.

Another roared explosion. Pieces of rubble were flying into the air. Several were heading in Ezra’s general direction. Ezra increased his speed and dodged through the rubble with the ease and grace of a cat. His eyes focused ahead toward the source of the chaos.

It was a giant lizard-like creature easily four times Ezra’s size. Its body was covered in huge green scales while its eyes were narrowed into slits. Its tongue poked out, tasting the air. It turned to the side with unnatural speed, smashing a building to rubble.

A man in armor rushed toward it, his sword glowing bright purple. The lizard didn’t have a chance to respond and the sword smashed into the scale and sank into its flesh.

The creature let out an angry hiss, then swung its long tail around toward the attacker. As soon as the tail made contact with the man’s armor, there was a loud thundercrack sound and the man flew into the air, limp as a sack of potatoes.

“What the hell is this thing!?” someone shouted. “This is insane! What’s a monster like this doing so close to town?!”

The hair on Ezra’s skin raised and his heart started to pump in his chest. He came to a sudden stop. He looked up toward the monster, then squatted slightly to allow him easier movement.

So much chaos was caused by this single creature.

LV. 27 - Giant Lizard

“Well? What are you waiting for?” a voice said.

Filamenta crawled toward his hand. Ezra flipped it around, exposing his palm. She glowed, then transformed into his needle.

“This creature is an eyesore,” Filamenta said, glowing in time with her speech. “Please remove it from existence.”

Ezra grinned. He muttered an incantation, transforming his needle into something a bit larger and more suitable for combat.

“What do you know?” he said. “You finally said something that doesn’t make me wanna smash you into a wall.”

Filamenta cried out. “Excuse me!?”

Ezra dashed forward toward the Giant Lizard, the wind beating against his chest. Its slitted eyes looked toward him, then it launched its tail. Ezra jumped into the air, dodging the attack.

“[Air Attack]!”

Ezra shot forward with momentum, landing neatly on the creature’s back. Pivoting his weight, he quickly converted the momentum and continued his mad rush up the creature’s backside.

The monster roared and swung itself to the left in an attempt to dislodge Ezra. Ezra jumped into the air, using [Air Attack] and flying toward the enemy’s eye. Filamenta sunk into the creature’s pupil and deep into the head. The monster let out an anguished cry as a third of its health disappeared.

789/1200

Ezra held out his hand. “Recall!”

Filamenta disappeared and blue blood squirted out from the open wound. The monster thrashed around, twisted, and leveled a building.

Ezra jumped into the air. In moments, his momentum began to run out and he started to fall toward the ground.

“[Air Attack]!”

Ezra’s momentum was twisted toward the side, allowing him to roll along the ground in a rough heap. He looked back up toward his opponent, twirling his needle between his fingers. His heart pounded in his chest. Sweat dripped from his head and splattered onto the ground. His breath heaved in and out in his chest.

Ezra focused his eyes on the opponent. He broke off into a sprint.

The monster’s eyes spied him and it reached out its tremendous jaws toward Ezra. There were no teeth, but the massive muscles in the jaw told Ezra that it would be a very bad idea to get chewed up by the giant lizard.

Ezra held out his hand. “[Entangle]!”

Thick strings like steel cords ripped out of the ground and slammed the creature into the floor. The earth shook from left to right, nearly knocking Ezra off-balance. He quickly adjusted his steps and continued sprinting.

At the top of Ezra’s vision, his mana lowered to 0.

The monster snapped the string and flipped its tail around toward Ezra. Ezra didn’t have a chance to dodge. Filamenta glowed and yellow threads appeared in front of Ezra right before the tip of the tail slammed into him. Ezra flew through the air for several seconds before slamming against a log pillar.

53/300

Ezra gritted his teeth together and pushed himself up. The thread protected him from the worst of the damage, it seemed.

Filamenta glowed gold, her voice beaming into his mind. “This is why you invest in Constitution, fool. If I hadn’t saved you, you would’ve perished on impact.”

Ezra grunted and squeezed his weapon. “Whatever you say.”

Filamenta didn’t have a chance to speak. Ezra dashed forward and back toward the enemy. The lizard reared back and sent another attack out with its tail.

Ezra tensed his legs, then jumped into the air. A moment later, the tail swept underneath him. The lizard reached out with its maw to seize him in mid-air.

Ezra met the challenge head-on, continuing toward the enemy.

“[Air Attack]!”

Ezra flew through the air at a slight angle, stabbing into the brain of the enemy.

0/1200

The creature’s momentum caused it to continue moving despite the lack of life in its eyes. Ezra gripped his weapon instinctively. The wind beat against his eyes as the creature moved until it slowly came to a stop.

Ezra pushed himself up. He was on top of the Giant Lizard, but it’s corpse would begin disintegrating any moment.

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[You have leveled up!]

People were stopping and staring at him. One person’s jaw had dropped. There was another person dressed in fine white robes, who’d been organizing the back and forth of the damage mitigation efforts, directing the rescue efforts. He was blinking slowly, as if unable to believe what he’d just seen. Overhead, there was a name bar.

Villscha - Lv. 51 - Guildmaster

That man was probably the one to talk to when it came to money. Ezra pulled his weapon out of the monster’s brain with a grunt of effort. He jumped down, approaching the man.

“Can you come up with some other moves?” Filamenta said. “The brain stab is getting rather cliché.”

“No.”

----------------------------------------

“Money, you say?”

The man in question pulled out a handkerchief from a red sash wrapped around his body. He dabbed his forehead with the handkerchief, getting rid of some of the sweat.

He smiled, though it was a strained thing.

“Some rookie mercenaries engaged the creature when it was passing by the town. Had they not done it, I’m sure all this devastation could have been prevented—“

“I honestly don’t give a shit about any of that. Like I said, I’m new to the country and have very little currency.”

The man’s eyes widened before narrowing.

“Now why would a man of such skill leave your home country with no currency?” he said. “Did you expect to find work? Or was it that the situation demanded you leave as quickly as possible?”

Ezra raised an eyebrow. Had he already been found out?

The man continued speaking, “Well, it’s none of my business. In any case, you’ve come to the right man for money. I happen to be the guildmaster for the Mercenary’s Guild of Toria.” He held out his hand. “Villscha. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Filamenta glowed in his hand, her voice coming from everywhere and nowhere.

“This man is a rather slimy individual, isn’t he?” she said. “Immediately deflecting blame like he did. He was afraid that he’d get in trouble for the people who are presumably a part of his organization.”

Ezra’s hair rose on end. What was Filamenta doing?! Villscha would hear them—

“Oh, relax,” she said. “I’m not that stupid. I’m speaking in your mind, can’t you tell?”

Ezra’s fury was quickly replaced with surprise. His heart slowed down and he breathed out a sigh of relief. He looked at Villscha. The man was looking at him with confusion, but there was no offense. He hadn’t heard a thing that Filamenta had said.

“If you don’t mind,” Ezra whispered under his breath. “Don’t catch me by surprise like that.”

“Pardon?” the guildmaster said.

“Nothing at all,” Ezra said. “If you’re the guildmaster, then can you explain how your system works and how I can obtain money?”

Villscha nodded. “Of course. Let’s head to the guild hall and I’ll explain things in detail.”

The walk was short but informative. It seemed that the guildmaster had good reason to be cautious. More than a few people were glaring at him as if he was personally responsible for the attack. Villscha continued to sweat. He had to resort to his handkerchief more and more, his skin steadily increasing in redness.

Eventually, they reached the guild hall. It was a grand building seated right at what seemed to be the town square. The entrance, bizarrely, was at the corner of the building, facing toward the middle of the intersection in the street. The building itself dwarfed everything around it, stretching out over them. Logs lined the walls, granting it the feel of a fairy tale cottage.

Villscha stepped forward and threw open the doors, revealing a roaring fire at the end of the room. On one side was a row of desks. Most of them were empty save for one that had a young woman covered in dirt and dust, her brown curly hair frazzled. On the other side was an open dining area with several tables. The wall on that end was acting as a bulletin board, covered in pieces of paper.

“Ezra!” Filamenta’s voice hissed. “Look on the wall to your left!”

Ezra looked at it.

It had his face with a bounty on it. One thousand gold coins.

“Hm, they work quickly,” Ezra said.

“What the hell are you doing!?” Filamenta said. “We need to run!”

Ezra approached the piece of paper. Villscha followed behind, a curious expression on his face.

“Sir?” Villscha said.

Ezra took the bounty and compared it with his face. He turned toward Villscha. “I look kind of similar to this guy.”

Filamenta screamed at the top of her non-existent lungs.

“You idiot!” she said.

Villscha tilted his head.

“If you squint, yes, I see the resemblance. You’re different, though, due to the eye injury. Beyond that, they said he uses a large dirk, whereas you were clearly using some kind of… needle?”

Wow. Thank god for incompetent bureaucrats.

Ezra nodded solemnly and put the bounty back. “Yes.”

Filamenta was making a choking sound.

“You’re kidding me,” she said. “This is so stupid.”

Ezra followed behind Villscha back to the row of desks.

“I told you that the disguise would work perfectly,” Ezra said.

Internally, Ezra could hear a sound akin to that of a head slamming into a table. He smiled.

They walked back toward the stalls. Villscha stopped in front of the frazzled woman who’d watched them come in.

“I’m not sure how aware you are of the guild system, so I will have Prise explain everything from the beginning. Prise?”

Prise looked up. “Yes sir?”

“Can you kindly explain the guild system to this man?”

Prise’s back straightened and her hands shot out in random directions, almost knocking over the herbal tea she was sipping.

“Yes, of course!” she said.

Prise might’ve been called beautiful with her auburn hair and brown eyes. The problem was the fact that she looked like she’d just been through a natural disaster. Her hair flew off in various directions, her skin was covered in dirt, and even her eyes looked pale and grey.

“What on earth happened to you?” Ezra said.

Prise winced. She shrunk in on herself, then averted her eyes.

“Well, I was on my way here when this Giant Lizard attacked,” she said. “I was actually trapped in a building. If you hadn’t fought when you did…”

She stopped speaking.

Ezra frowned. Wasn’t she supposed to give him some sort of explanation about the guild?

Prise perked up and her eyes widened. “Right! I’m supposed to explain the guild system to you!”

She took a sip of her herbal tea, and then set it back down on her desk.

“There are many guilds across Cortia,” she said. “There are a few common functions held to by all of them. They uphold the honor of their members by ensuring all of them meet guild standards, they deal with the nobility and other prospective employers to ensure fair standards for their constituents, and they help arrange for employment.”

She paused and looked at Ezra sharply.

“The Mercenary’s guild is different. In addition to all of that, we act as supervisors and employers for our members. Contracts are not done between employer and employee. Instead, the guild acts as a middle-man. As a mercenary, you’re functionally a freelancer instead of being bound to anyone or anything—“

Ezra frowned and tapped his finger against the table. “How much of this do I need to know?”

Prise stiffened. She leaned back and smiled awkwardly.

“I’ll cut to the chase,” she said. “Normally there would be a formal approval process, but I believe I can waive that due to your exemplary actions earlier.”

“Good. Less time wasted.”

Prise chuckled and looked away.

“Well, there are some things we can’t waive,” she said. “We can’t give you the harder, better-paying quests.”

“Why?” Ezra said.

Prise’s words sped up.

“Insurance purposes, sir.” Her words started to blur together with how quickly she was speaking. “If you fail or make things worse, it’s up to the guild to cover for your mistake, the bigger the mistake, the more money comes directly out of the guild’s pockets, as such, we require that mercenaries prove themselves before we give them hard quests.”

She paused.

“It’s in our bylaws,” she said.

Ezra’s left eye twitched. For a moment, Ezra considered trying to demand a harder quest. That thought was quickly wiped away by one of his greatest fears.

He’d totally look like a Karen if he did that.

“How is this determined?” Ezra said. “How do you know if a quest suits someone or not?”

Prise pointed to a chart behind her with a bunch of letters from S to F.

“A ranking system,” she said. “It’s standard across the country for all guilds to rank members this way. You’ll be starting from the bottom, F.”

“Could you explain the ranking system? What do different ranks typically deal with?”

Prise nodded and pulled out a piece of paper.

“Of course!” she said. “To heavily simplify things, A-rank deals with huge problems. Think country-ending threats. They’re often hired out as special forces for smaller kingdoms. B-rank deals with more regional threats—in fact, we have about six or seven B-ranks here at the guild.”

“What about S-rank?”

“Well, there aren’t exactly a lot of them. Supposedly they’re strong enough to deal with world-ending catastrophes like Lich Kings. I haven’t heard much about them—they’re more legend than reality. I’m sure they exist, but I just don’t have much to tell you.”

Ezra tapped his foot against the ground. “And F-rank?”

She coughed.

“Well,” she said. “Keep in mind that they’re an important part of the guild. After all, they deal with non-combat tasks like collecting herbs, patrolling town, they... Um…

Ezra sighed.

“Pest control?” he said.

“Yup! Pest control!”

“Yeah, let’s just do whatever’s available.”

Prise wiped some sweat off her forehead, then took a sip of her tea.

“I have a quest here that’s on the better-paying end even though it’s F,” she said. “A skinwalker spawn slaying quest—“

Blood. His arm, half-gone. Pain—

“Absolutely not,” he said.

The temperature of the room seemed to lower from Ezra’s declaration. He stared at Prise as if he was trying to read her soul through her eyes.

Prise gulped, leaned back, then nodded.

“Understood! Well, in that case, there’s a horned rat infestation no one’s wanted to deal with. Think you can handle it?”

Ezra nodded.

“All you have to do is fetch the request from the back wall, then give it to me for approval.”

Ezra walked over to the part of the wall Prise was speaking about. He looked over it for a second, then grabbed the sheet of paper that Prise was talking about. He immediately darted toward the door.

“Um, sir?” Prise said. “You need to give that to me for approval.”

Ezra waved at her with his backhand and exited the door.

He much preferred coffee instead of tea, anyway.