"Incredible... despite only possessing the strength of a new C-Ranker, you've been evaluated as a Gold-Silver rank..." the Manager mumbled in disbelief.
Lone picked up the small sheet of metal with his name engraved on it and attached it to an alterion chain that he had just created in his pocket before he put the new accessory on. Out of pure curiosity, he used his new ability on the gold-silver plate.
Lone Immortus's Gold-Silver Adventurer Status Plate Description Created by The Adventurer's Guild in Everlast for the Adventurer, Lone Immortus. It denominates his rank as a Gold-Silver Adventurer. Rank Common Stats Durability: 100/100 Dignity: 5 Abilities N/A
'Dignity? A new stat? I wonder what kind of effects it will have? Probably none since it's only at five points,' Lone thought to himself.
A few moments later, the Manager composed himself and coughed lightly to clear the slightly awkward atmosphere. "Who would like to go next?"
This time, Breena volunteered herself. Unlike lone's grand achievements, besides the Dungeon related ones, Breena didn't have any achievements so her plate was Iron-Ranked which was still quite good considering it wasn't the worst possibility.
Lone made a necklace for Breena's plate and then Swind went up to get evaluated. His results were worse than Breena's due to him not participating in literally a single fight in the Dungeon, so he was given the worst possible rank, a wooden plate.
Sophie was next and she did marginally better than the others. Her plate was made of dark-steel which was only two ranks lower than Lone's. This was due to her experience of running away from the Templars for nearly two years back on Earth and for killing Earth's previous God. Although the achievements didn't explicitly say these things, it was easy to infer for those who knew the truth.
Lone created a necklace for both Swind and Sophie and he gently put Sophie's on for her. A few moments later, Eolande did her evaluation.
Surprisingly, she was only given a wooden-plate, the lowest possible rank.
"That's what I get for doing nothing except forging and enchanting for the past few thousand years..." Lone heard Eolande mumble.
"Well, now that that's concluded, Sir Lone, shall we move on to your other matters?" the Manager asked with a clearly more respectful tone.
'Is it because I got issued a decently ranked plate?' Lone thought before he replied, "Actually, there's still one more person I'd like to get a plate please if it's not too much trouble."
"... Another?" the Manager asked in confusion. As far as he could see, it was only him, Lone and Lone's four companions in the room, all of whom had been evaluated and given their plates.
Stolen story; please report.
Lone crouched down and lightly stroked Kyuubi's fluffy head. "Go on, put your paw on it," Lone said with a warm and gentle tone.
Kyuubi nodded lightly and jumped up onto the table before she placed one of her furry paws against the orb. 'Maybe we can find out more about Kyuubi from her achievements?' Lone thought with hope.
'Eh? Eh?! That Fox isn't a pet? It's one of their groupmates? Eh? How?! Why?!' The Manager's stress levels had reached a whole new height today thanks to Lone. First, he had gotten a silver-gold plate which was quite rare, and now even his pet was trying to get a plate. The Manager could only pray to his God that nothing more excessive would happen during this interview. He was afraid that his aged heart couldn't take any more than this.
Thankfully for the Manager's heart, Kyuubi was only awarded a wooden-plate much like Eolande was.
"C-Can we move on to the next topic you needed to discuss, Sir Lone?" the Manager asked with a tremble in his voice. He was greatly hoping that Lone wasn't going to surprise him again with something ludicrous.
"Ah, yeah. Thanks for being so patient with us even though you're a Manager," Lone smiled. He was disappointed that no new information about Kyuubi was revealed, but there was nothing that he could do about that.
The Deerkin couldn't help but raise his opinion of lone with those humble words of his. 'So even if he's awakened however many times and is a Golden-variant, he still knows how to respect his elders? It's good to see that some youngsters still haven't forgotten to treat those who came before them well.'
'I wonder if this guy will spread that I cleared Clicker's Dungeon and that I survived an encounter with him? Maybe Surviving an encounter with a God isn't very rare? Afterall, my Adventurer ranking is only roughly in the middle. According to what those Halflings said, there are seven ranks above silver-gold... ' Lone's mind was busy thinking about this while he completely ignored the Manager's attitude towards him.
"Well," Lone opened his mouth to voice his second request. "I was wondering if we could create our own official Adventurer's group? I heard there were benefits included if I was in a group," Lone asked somewhat cautiously.
"Such a simple request... yes, Sir Lone. Naturally, since your rank exceeds silver rank, you are free to make an official group, however, to upgrade it to a guild, you will require at least one-hundred members," the Manager said with his previous business-like tone back in full force.
"That's fine, just a normal group will do. What do you need from me to make it and could you please tell me what benefits I'll get in return for making a group?" Lone asked seriously.
"Of course," the Manager replied before he took a quick pause to compile his thoughts. "All I need from you, Sir Lone, is your Adventurer plate and for you to sign a few basic documents. That shouldn't take any longer than fifteen minutes."
The Manager took a small stack of papers out from a drawer connected to the desk and he then pulled out a simple pair of reading glasses from within his robes. A few seconds later, he had split the stack into two smaller piles and he handed a quill to Lone. "Please, I'll explain the benefits as we fill out the information."
After that, the Manager explained in detail what being in a group meant for an Adventurer. To summarise, it gave Adventurers more credibility and fame while at the same time, granting them more rewards for turning in quests. The only drawback was that if you were called to help on an emergency quest, you weren't allowed to refuse any more than three times if your entire group was called to assist.
The Manager heavily stressed how rare such an occurrence was when Lone showed some hesitance, as an example, he stated how the group, The Seven Deadly Sins, hadn't been forcefully assigned a quest even once despite the fact that they were the strongest and most famous group under the Adventurers Guild.
After agreeing to the terms, Lone finished up writing the paperwork and only one empty section remained.
Eolande curiously peaked at the sheet of paper and her eyebrow arched up. "Hmm? Don't know what to call the group, Husband?"
Indeed, the one spot Lone had left blank, was the group's name. "I'm not sure what's really the most eye-catching, but also the most fitting name for us." Lone wore a troubled look as he thought over this issue.
Breena stepped forward and decided to help her struggling Master. "Master, why not, 'The Wanderers'?"
Breena's thoughts were that they as a group had done nothing but move from one place to another ever since they started travelling together, and from her understanding of Lone, that pattern wasn't going to change anytime soon.
"The Wanderers... yes, let's go with that," Lone said before he turned to Breena and gently stroked her head. 'She was supposed to be my bodyguard at first... but now, she feels more like a little sister... '
The way Lone looked at the world had been changing recently and he couldn't help but allow those changed views to seep into his personal relationships as well. For some reason, he couldn't avoid seeing the world as being less grey and more defined in general than he did back on Earth during his life as a Teacher.
However, regardless of Lone's new opinion of his relationship with Breena, today was the day that the legendary group, The Wanderers, was born.