The mock battle had come to an end with a result that didn´t strive far from expectations. And well, somebody seems very happy with that. Vienessa and Eden follow the receptionist, who performed as a judge, side by side as he brings them back to the musty front of the guild. Eden´s party is already waiting there for him:
“Hey, what took you so long?” a short girl comes running, her oversized robe fluttering behind her. She stops right in front of Eden and looks up at him, tightly clutching the large wand in her hand.
“Selia… Well…” Eden begins but quickly loses his words.
Selia and Eden stand there, facing each other for a bit. Yet, even after thinking about it in awkward silence, he doesn´t know what to say. So, with nothing coming to mind, Eden evades by just shaking his head. Without a word he sits down at his party´s table and takes a large sip of the beer that stands there
“Hey, what the heck?! That´s mine!” Eden´s other party member with a spear over her shoulder shouts
“Sorry Nadia, but… please leave me alone for a bit”
She looks him over, then frowns
“Jeez, what´s your deal?”
Selia, the Black Mage of the party, doesn’t seem to really understand either. However, knowing the big man with a soft heart, she assumes that he just feels bad for the new girl? The fight was unfair, too much maybe. At least that´s how she feels… No, even a blind person would see that. So of course he would feel bad. This is starting to even make her feel bad the more she thinks about it…
So, while her party member and good friend is recovering, Selia decides that the least thing she can do is give the new girl a few words of encouragement. Yes, that would be for the best
She gets up and turns her head like a lost puppy looking for its owner. Vienessa remained at the reception table, seemingly waiting, so Selia makes her way over there too:
“It´s okay,” she says as she reaches the girl “It´s only natural you can´t compete with Eden´s years of experience yet, everybody has to start out somewhere. But from now on it´s only upward, so don´t let this loss discourage you and–
“The heck are you on about?” Vienessa interrupts, looking down at the girl smaller than her
Selia is a little taken aback by the bluntness in Vienessa´s voice, maybe offended even. She stops for a moment.
“There´s no need to be so rude,” she then pouts “I only wanted to cheer you up from your fight with Eden.”
“You mean the fight I won?” the Demon asks, raising an eyebrow
“Of course the fight you… Eh?” For a second Selia seems confused, some others who were nearby and overheard suddenly stop talking and turn their heads. But then it hits the Black Mage, or at least she thinks so
“Ahh, I see now. Nono, you see, even if he went easy on you, you can´t just take it as your win. You have to–
“It´s true though,” Eden cuts in, still sitting at the table his words resonate across the guild “I… lost”
Aaand with that, the entire guild turns silent.
The girl with the spear sitting next to Eden almost chokes on her drink: “Wait, are you for real? She´s Level 17, right? Is there something I don´t get?”
“No, that´s all correct,” he answers.
…
“Ahem,” the receptionist makes before the situation turns into a total mess, everybody turns to him. “It´s as the young man says, the girl won. Even though your companion gave it his all”
He looks at Vienessa “And it is also true that she´s Level 17 and… a White Mage… and she won against a Shielder… who´s… Level 123?”
The receptionist trails off. “Man, it feels so wrong saying that out loud. I mean, a Level 17? A White Mage at that? That´s so ridiculous I wouldn´t believe it if I didn´t see it with my own eyes,” he chuckles over his own words, then looks around realizing he made a mistake
“Oh,” he says, remembering that his plan was to calm the situation, which he utterly failed now.
All eyes fall on the girl who´s stretching beside the receptionist with a smile plastered all over her face.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Anyways,” the receptionist says, clinging onto a last strand of hope “I would now like to instruct the newcomer as she´s eager to take a quest. I would ask you not to cause her too much trouble,” he addresses the crowd.
Yeah, as if. It´s way too late for that now.
In just a few seconds all present in the guild gather around the newcomer, the excitement in the air is emanant. They ask her ´how she did that´ or ´If she wants to join their party´ or just praise her for the next thing that comes to mind. Well, one thing is clear though: Almost nobody is doubting her win, although any person with common sense would. Maybe the thrilling atmosphere after a boring day got to them? Who knows.
It results in the legend of the ´Almighty Newcomer´ being born at that moment, it was evident that Vienessa would become something akin to a celebrity among Adventurers in the near future.
--
The girl didn´t hate the attention she received from all the people in the guild at first, but the more time passed, the more she wanted to get out of there. They began to become annoying, irritating. There was still a Dungeon full of delicious experience waiting for her.
After the commotion has calmed down a bit, the receptionist takes a deep breath and wipes the sweat from his forehead
“It sure became lively today. Well, at least you won´t have trouble finding a party from now on,” he tries to lighten the mood, and sees that the girl is not smiling one bit. “Sorry,” he clears his throat “You were eager to take a quest, right? I hope there won´t be any other delays happening from now on”. He takes out a bundle of notes from a drawer “These are all the Dungeon quests that remain for today,” he says
Vienessa finally looks like the good mood flowed back into her as she gives the pieces of paper a quick skim. Though, shortly after, the receptionist sees her face turning somewhat disappointed “I was actually looking for a High-Rank Dungeon… why are there only Intermediate ones?” she asks.
“Hmm, it seems that for today all Quests involving High-Rank Dungeons have been taken already”
Vienessa tilts her head slightly to the right “So you´re telling me there are High-Rank Dungeons”
“Yes”
“But I can´t go there because someone was faster than me or what?”
“Absolutely correct.”
Vienessa is ready to punch the man. Feeling that his life is in danger he quickly starts to explain “You see, Dungeons come in different difficulties and sizes. If, for example, too many adventurers were to go to the same place, they´d only get into each other’s way. Imagine someone taking out the monsters you had your eyes on.”
Vienessa lowers her fist to which the receptionist releases a sigh of relief “That´s why the entry limit and size of the Dungeon strongly correlate. The same can be said about Dungeons that aren´t popular as well. Because monsters spawn regularly in Dungeons, especially the higher ranked it is, there´s a chance that the numbers would increase too much. That´d lead to the fiends leaving for the outside world, or as we call it: An Overflow. That is why the bounty for monsters is increased which are recorded to spawn in certain dungeons if nobody has ´visited´ them in a while”
“Right…” Vienessa says, having listened to about half of that “Then tell me, which Dungeon that´s left has the strongest monsters?” she asks
“Well…” the receptionist rummages through the sheets and presents one of them to her “I guess this one would be–
“Alright, I´ll take it” Vienessa grabs the single paper out of his hand without letting him finish.
“U-Uhm, wait a second”
But Vienessa doesn´t “Is there everything I have to know written on here?”
“Well, yes, but–
“And you´ll also record me going there?”
“Yes I will, but listen–
“Good, I´m off then,” Vienessa concludes the conversation and leaves the guild
“Wait!” the receptionist shouts, but the girl is already gone. “Are you… serious?”
-- -- --
´I´m free! Ahh the fresh air, the feeling of going to a Dungeon, this is just the best~´
Vienessa basically dances through the streets in the setting sun. The girl is delighted about finally leaving the guild. If she had known this was going to be so much trouble, she never would have agreed toMadeleine´s proposition, though it´s way too late for that now. Whatever, all that´s in the past now so who cares
´The paper I got from the guild says the Dungeon will be swarmed with monsters, apparently all about on par with the Minotaurs from last Dungeon. Well, that´s not bad though. I´ve been fighting really strong people for a while now, so that´s going to be a nice change of pace. I wonder if I can beat them as easily as those Bats from my first Dungeon now that I´ve trained with Pa? I´ve been getting much stronger recently, I even won against a Level 120 opponent without showing my entire hand. This is way too exciting~ I want to lock myself in the Dungeon until all the experience points are mine, but I promised Madeleine to meet up later in the evening… Oh well, guess I´ll just check it out for today, tomorrow is a day too. Yeah, that´s right. Patience, me. And after I´ve finished with this Dungeon I´ll–
Vienessa stops in her tracks for just a moment, but then continues as though nothing was wrong. She equips an impenetrable mask, there´s not even the littlest change in her behavior.
´Is someone tailing me? There was this presence for a split second. Did I imagine it? No… I´m sure I felt something. Someone from the guild? They´re pretty skilled, but fine, I´ll show them if they mess with me. Just you dare follow me´
Vienessa takes a sharp turn to the right into a narrow alleyway. She continues to walk in random directions until she´s certain there´s not a soul around. The huge shadows of the towering buildings block out every spec of sunlight. She then comes to an abrupt hold and crosses her arms, a faint smile manifests on her blood-red lips.
“I know you´re there,” she says without turning around “Come out, or I´ll make you”
“Oh? So you did notice. I had started to wonder, but now I see. You lured me here, did you not?”
This voice… Vienessa is certain she had heard it before. But where? It´s so familiar… so very familiar…
–!
Suddenly, it hits her: “You! You´re the–
“Bingo, ding ding ding! Exactly right! It´s me, your friendly receptionist from the Center Guild, Sara~”
“I knew something was wrong about you. What do you want from me?” Vienessa shows her teeth
“Fufufu,” Sara giggles, a bit too amused. “Relax, it´s nothing much. Really. You just need to die for me, little Demon”