The door closed behind Troy, and he hesitantly walked towards the round wooden table in the room. It wasn’t a hole in the wall, despite the literal window on one side. Instead, the room was lit up by a ball of light set in a massive crystal, illuminating a small set of glassy crystal balls on the tabletop.
“Please, take a seat,” Yvalyn instructed, gesturing to a spare stool across from her. As she organized the sheets in-hand, Troy carefully sat down only to wince at the creak it made. “So, since you’re joining the guild as a third-party person, we do have a few options available for you,” she told him, and pointed at a green crystal ball, “Before we begin discussing things in more detail, would you like to use the guild’s Education Xenial Processor? It would help simplify your options for your Job.”
“No, I’ll pass for now,” Troy answered, fighting the urge to rub his neck. Sure, it might be a good way to help learn what skills are useful. But with his college classes, he suspected any job they’d recommend would be behind a desk rather than next to Alcydes.
While Yvalyn frowned at the answer, she simply marked it down. “In that case, I guess I’ll start with the simple questions,” she stated, and pointed her quill at the top of the sheet. “To start things off, can you please list your name, age and race?” At the question, Troy coughed once into his hand to clear his throat before he looked her in the eyes.
“My name is Troy Ericsen, I am twenty-two and I am a human.”
“Hair and eye color?”
“Brown and blue respectively.”
“Any former affiliation with other guilds before this?”
Troy paused at this and looked at Yvalyn with a slight frown. “I already told you that I didn’t have a guild tag before this. Why did you ask me again?”
“Record-keeping, I’m afraid,” she answered, jotting it down even as he spoke, “If we don’t answer it, the auditors tend to be… displeased. Now, when it comes to weapons training, what do you mainly specialize in?”
Troy hummed in thought at the question, then placed a hand on his rifle’s butt. “I would have to say my main weapon is my rifle, as I learned how to use it since I was a teenager, and using a hatchet,” he answered, only to turn pensive as a new thought hit him. “However, I will need to get some training in using a shield or a better melee weapon soon.”
“Oh? Why’s that?” Yvalyn asked, her notes halted halfway.
“Well, the main reason I’m doing this isn’t for glory,” Troy told her, one hand clenching involuntarily, “When I saw Alcydes fighting that massive boar by himself… Being trampled to mush by the monster and torn to shreds…” Words failed him, and Troy glared down at the tabletop until a small cough broke his rumination. He jerked back at the noise and shook his head. “So yeah, I just want to get some defensive training in to help keep him safe.”
Yvalyn smiled at that and gave a short nod. “That’s certainly an admirable goal. We don’t have any Job schools in the nearby area, but I’m sure some of the local guards can help you with that,” she stated, and continued to write stuff down for several pages. After several points were marked off, she eventually set the sheet down on the table.
“That takes care of all the basic information for now,” she said, and glanced at the sheet before she finally grabbed a ruby brick, “Since this is your first time here, the guild can provide some starting gear. However, we’ll need to view your Stable Traits to figure out what options work best for you. Could you please put your hand on the tablet to view them?”
While he was slightly confused at the question, Troy reached out and grabbed the other end of the brick. Once he had a firm grip, Yvlayn looked at the crystal and declared, “[Display Status].” A faint tingle passed through Troy’s arm, but the green screen soon formed between the two. Yvalyn hummed in thought, and pointed a finger at the grid of numbers. “The good news is that your Traits are rather balanced. That’s a surprising welcome, compared to most folks that apply around here.”
“Well, I wanted to make sure they were balanced,” Troy responded, waving a hand in the air, “Better to be well-rounded than a one-trick pony and all that.”
Yvalyn paused at the comment and looked at him with greater scrutiny. Troy felt sweaty as she looked him in the eye, but the red-haired elf looked at the stat sheet before she let out a sigh. “Tell me, Troy - Are you from Earth?” Yvalyn asked, her hands steepled together.
Troy sputtered at the accusation. How could she tell?! His outfit wasn’t tailor-made, and it wasn’t like he had been acting like a braindead tourist. So many questions were coming to mind, but with his mind stumbling to figure out what gave him away, one question finally came rushing out-
“How do you even know about Earth?!”
Yvalyn snorted at that, and stabbed her pen into the inkpot. “You really think you’re the first guy from there?” she asked, her cheery tone slipping away, “Every month, a bunch of you show up around the world, more if there’s something big going on. Every time, at least half of you act like you’re a big shot. ‘Oh, I was sent by the gods! I’m the Chosen One! I have a super-powerful skill! Give me special treatment!’” Yvalyn spat on the ground in disgust. “Thank the gods there’s enough adventurers with common sense to keep the peace, or we’d be neck-deep in reckless idiots causing chaos!”
Yvalyn took in several ragged breaths, a snarl marring her face. It was only when she realized that Troy was staring at her in disbelief that she quickly coughed and corrected her hair. “I’m sorry that you had to see that outburst of mine,” she apologized, her mask of professional serenity quickly falling back in place, “But to answer your question, yes, there are plenty of people who have come from Earth before you.”
Troy could only stare at her for several seconds, still stunned at her explosive rant. “Are they really that bad?” he eventually asked, his mind stumbling to understand what could possibly have pissed her off this much.
Yvalyn stared at him for a bit, then finally let out a low sigh. “To be realistic, most of the ‘Star Heroes’, the official term for people from Earth like you, are thankfully pretty reasonable,” she stated, her body drooping in weary resignation, “But on average, one in four of all new Star Heroes will cause a ruckus over some hyped-up reason. Most of them get arrested and straightened out within three months. But if they’re not brought back to reality fast enough…” Yvalyn grimaced at a particular memory. “Laufey and Rhilynn are still dealing with the floodwaters after the Deepsnow Glaciers had been flash-melted.”
Troy hissed at the details, mental imagery easily filling the dots. “I can’t blame you for being upset about all that,” he hissed in frustration, running a hand through his hair. God knows what would happen if a madman decided to recreate a nuke. After a moment of contemplation, Troy raised a hand in appeasement. “If it makes you feel any better, I am mainly applying just to make sure Alcydes is safe.”
“Oh, you made that very clear earlier,” Yvalyn commented, and began to look his application over again, “However, if you only recently arrived on Mugarde, that does bring up some points we’ll need to cover.” After a brief glance over, she looked back up at him. “Now, since you are a Star Hero, I do need to cover some topics for protocol’s sake. How familiar are you with Skills and Jobs?”
Troy hummed in thought, a hand coming up to his chin. “The terms sound familiar, and I can definitely hear the capital letters in the terms,” he said, only to admit, “However, I have no idea at all what meaning you’re using.”
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Yvalyn let out a small sigh of suffering acceptance, and grabbed a pile of notecards. “In that case, we’ll go over the very basic terms for each term,” she said, and began to read off the cards. “To summarize, Skills are a form of arcane empowerment first developed 200 years ago by the gods Kashak and Houdin. By drawing from the user’s Mana Pool, you can activate a Skill to perform feats beyond your normal average.”
Troy let out a whistle at her words, and leaned forward in interest. “How does that work? I mean, you can’t exactly create energy from nothing…”
The red-haired clerk smirked at his question, and held three sheets up in a rough pile. “While the exact mechanics are up for debate, the unified method is that by drawing from the Mana Pool, the Skill is used with the full power of the relevant Stable Trait without any drawbacks. This way, a woodsman can Cleave a tree in less than ten blows without throwing his back out, but it can also be used for more mundane purposes.”
At that comment, Yvalyn looked at the sheets more intently. She narrowed her eyes, and declared, “[Packet Bind]!” A small burst of white energy flashed through the bundle, and she tossed the papers over to Troy. “Here, try to pull these apart.”
Now fully curious, Troy picked the papers up with both hands. While there was no glue or pin through the sheets, he could feel something keeping them together. After several hard tugs, Troy peeled two sheets apart to find a small circle was completely immutable. He continued to try several more methods, only to finally fall back in stumped surprise. “Amazing. So it’s just MP and a Stable Trait that makes that happen?” Troy asked, still playing with the sheets.
“It’s not a complete fix, but Skills can help a large amount of it,” she corrected, and cycled through her remaining cards, “Anyways, as an adventurer starting out, you’ll be given a starting package of six Skills. But you’ll need to work on finding any other skills yourself. That can be done through specialized training, sharing skills with other Adventurers, and Harvesting monsters. You can even purchase some from our Guild Armory!”
When she finished explaining it all, Troy let out a noise. “That is actually quite interesting,” he mused, drawing small circles on the wood in his thoughts. “So if Skills are limited actions, I’m guessing that the Job is like a Class or set role that limits what skills can be gained?”
Yvalyn froze at his question, only to look at him perplexed. “What? No, it’s nothing like that!” she refuted, “A Job’s just what your training and specialty is aligned towards. If it was that limited, the Job schools would dominate the guild framework entirely!” She paused at her words, then hummed in thought. “Then again, a good number of schools do have hidden skills they use as their main selling points, so I guess it’s not completely wrong…”
As she mulled that over, Troy pursed his lips and closed his eyes in thought. While it was interesting that the guild put so much focus on Skills, what were the limits to those skills? Was it a simple, single action? Something like an RPG? Or some shonen-grade bullshit, where each person has a secret origin or extradimensional core that makes stuff stupid strong?
Troy let out a snort at that, and shook his head at the concept. When he opened his eyes to see Yvalyn sternly staring at him, he squirmed at the attention. “Sorry about that. Just had a funny thought about trade schools,” he deflected.
This got him a raised eyebrow, but Yvalyn settled for simply putting the papers together. “Anyways, since your stats are relatively decent, we can at least get you a decent variety,” she stated, tapping the papers together. “I’ll get your application filed shortly, but you said you wanted a shield, right? We can easily provide a small one with a simple weapon for you. Would you prefer a club? A spear? We might have a few stone hammers from the dwarven miners that came through last month.”
Troy nodded along to the listed options, then paused when a stray thought hit. “Actually, if I’m getting a melee weapon, could I have the speartip replaced with something else?” Troy asked. As Yvalyn watched with a wary eye, Troy reached into his pack and pulled out a still bloodstained boar tusk. “This had come out of the Great Marsh Boar while I was distracting it,” he explained while he wiped some of the blood off, “It isn’t a metal point like most spears. But with how the boar had cut down trees with no chipping, I think it’ll be a lot stronger than any iron point for durability.”
While perplexed at the offer, Yvalyn took the oversized tooth and looked it over. “No real damage outside of natural chipping, removed within the last 72 hours,” she noted, and flipped it over. After some examination, she eventually shrugged and put on top of the papers. “Sure, that can work. Just give me a half-hour to get your equipment ready and file the paperwork.”
Troy was disappointed at the instruction, but tried to get comfy as she left. When the door closed with a soft thunk, Troy waited for several seconds for anything else. It was only after a minute passed that he finally relaxed. Now by himself, Troy pulled his backpack off and began to rummage through it. If there was one thing he learned from appointments and camping, it was to always have something to keep yourself occupied!
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Yvalyn kept a straight face as she walked through the guild’s back halls, clutching the application close to her chest. It was only when she reached the administrative offices that she rushed inside in a burst of movement. Once she closed the door behind her, she let out a low sigh of relief.
“What’s the rush, Yvalyn? We have another Flash Fryer incident in the tavern?”
Yvalyn yelped at the sudden comment, nearly dropping her papers. As she looked back up, she calmed down when she saw her silver-haired, dwarven manager sitting behind the desk. “Sorry about that, sir,” she stated, and walked over to her desk, “It’s just that our new applicant has raised some issues, especially as he’s a Star Hero.”
The man stiffened at the comment, and a burly arm reached for the solid steel warhammer he had mounted next to his table. “I won’t have to make an example out of him like Harvald was, will I?” he asked, his steely tone as stiff as the weapon’s handlebar.
Yvalyn shook her head at the offer, and began to pull out sheets that had gone unused. “It’s not like last month, but he’s definitely hiding a few things himself,” she relented, the blank documents being set in a ‘reuse’ tray. “He came in earlier with a kid named Alcydes, a Charcoal-rank adventurer. The kid had gone out hunting for marsh boars over in the Thorny Flats, but ran into a rather bristly problem.”
Once the stack was completed, Yvalyn held up her makeshift bony paperweight and asked, “Tell me, Pithott: does this look familiar?”
The dwarf squinted at the comment, only to curse when realization struck. “A Great Marsh Boar? Those shouldn’t be found for leagues from here!” Pithott spat out, his body reeling back from his desk. He quickly hopped off his seat, and weaved through the desks to examine it closely. “You said that he found this out in the Thorny Flats, right?”
“That’s correct,” Yvalyn affirmed, and handed the tusk over to him, “The other kills in Alcydes’s pendant were standard for the Thorny Flats. There was only one Great Marsh Boar in his storage, but with how merchants have been complaining about boar attacks-”
“-They’re likely being attacked by Great Marsh Boars,” Pithott finished, and scowled at the observation. “Dammit, what the hell are the hunter patrols doing? They get paid good money for this kind of stuff!” He continued to examine the tusk for several seconds, then finally gave Yvalyn a look. “You said that this Star Hero took the boar out?”
“He’s claiming that the kid had been the one to finish the job,” she commented, but pointedly stared at the tusk as she added, “However, considering that Great Marsh Boars are impossible to take down without being even the lowest of Metal-Grade, the only way to do that is by being extremely lucky… or having a overpowered Skill. It didn't help that he turned down the EXP test, so I couldn’t get his full Skill list.”
Pithott nodded along to her words, and looked over the tusk more critically. “What do you think he has, then? Strength enhancement? Being able to create a super-sharp blade?”
The red-haired elf hummed in thought, but soon shook her head. “I doubt it’s strength enhancement, especially when he only has a STR of 10,” she commented, and hummed in thought at the other option. “However, it could be that he could have a skill tied into piercing. I mean, Great Marsh Boars can break solid stone with their tusks! I doubt a basic weapon could rip a tusk out so cleanly.”
Pithott nodded along as he kept looking the tusk over. After some final speculation, he finally set the tusk down and sighed. “Unfortunately, we can’t tell for certain without that EXP list, so we’ll just have to keep a close eye on him,” he lamented. He shook his head in disappointment, then glanced at the application. “What rank will you be assigning him? Charcoal? Ivory?”
Yvalyn huffed at the question, and turned the sheet around for Pithott to read. “If I could, I’d make him a Marble Rank, especially when he wants to use the tusk to upgrade his spear. But since national guild policy states that new applicants who turn down the EX Processing must receive the lowest rank possible…” Yvalyn’s voice trailed off there, but Pithott’s face crumpled beneath his beard and hair when he realized what she was talking about.
“Fucking guild policy,” he growled, running his fingers through his beard. Pithott eventually pulled several coarse hairs out, and crumpled them into a rough ball. “Well, feel free to process his application into a pendant. I’ll take this down to the armory for ya,” he told her, then stomped out of the office with vigor. As the door swung back and forth on its hinges, Yvalyn sighed drearily and began to fold the application up for final processing.