A few days had passed since Zycor surrendered his gauntlets to Skal. Finally having his ‘no training’ punishment lifted, Zycor attempted to make up for lost time by using the day for intense training. As he sparred with human sized rock golems made by Adria for him, he heard Jorvaal call out to him, “Hey kid, I brought your gauntlets! Skalnyr said the repairs were finished and wanted you to try them out as soon as possible.”

Zycor finished off the last few golems with a chained lightning strike and turned to Jorvaal, “That’s good to hear. I thought they were scrap, so if she managed to repair them then that’s great.”

Jorvaal set down the large bag he had on his back and pulled out the gauntlets. Their color had been changed to a silver color from their original bronze color. Towards the middle of the gauntlet Skal had also put on her own personal craftsman insignia. “That little cretin! Not only did she alter it without permission, but she had the audacity to throw her craftsman symbol on there!?” Jorvaal angrily complained, unaware Skal made these changes, “I will take them back and scold her for it right now.”

Zycor stopped Jorvaal from leaving, “Hold on a moment, you don’t have to do that.”

“Are you really ok with her changing them without asking you first? She even claimed herself the sole craftsman allowed to work on them.” Jorvaal asked, wanting to make sure Zycor was, in fact, okay with it.

Confused by Jorvaals remark, Zycor inquired, “What do you mean she ‘claimed herself the sole craftsman?’”

Jorvaal sighed, “Well, blacksmiths and customers sometimes form a sort of agreement. The customer agrees to have the equipment repaired solely by the blacksmiths in exchange for occasional discounts and a promise of excellent work. There were instances of both sides trying to cheat the other out of quality, payment, or other blacksmiths promising to do a better job and stealing the patron. To mitigate this, the Merchants guild made an official rule that all blacksmiths were required to have an insignia and to engrave it into the equipment of the customers who made the agreement with them. Other blacksmiths were forbidden from working on gear with another's insignia, and if found out they would have their right to be a blacksmith revoked and slapped with a heavy fine. So in short, by allowing this insignia to remain, you are agreeing to have Skalnyr be the sole blacksmith allowed to repair or modify this equipment. Knowing what it means, are you still ok with this?”

After pondering a bit, Zycor responded, “I do like the silver better than the bronze color. And they honestly look better than they did previously. Seeing this, I don’t see any problem with letting the insignia remain.”

Zycor took the gauntlets from Jorvaal and immediately noticed that the straps were gone. Not knowing how to secure them, he wanted to at least see if the blades were repaired and could be extended, he could always put straps on later. When he put his hand into the first gauntlet, he felt that they were lined with a more comfortable material. As soon as his hand was fully inside of it, the material felt as though it inflated as it clamped onto his hand and forearm. A bit shocked, Zycor shook his hand as he attempted to throw the gauntlet off, but with no success.

Jorvaal, worried something went wrong, frantically asked, “Zycor! Are you ok?! What happened?!”

Zycor attempted to calm Jorvaal by calmly replying, “I am ok, don’t worry. It just surprised me when the inner lining clamped onto my hand and forearm.”

“It did WHAT?!” Jorvaal exclaimed, now even more panicked.

“It does not hurt,” Zycor explained, “It feels rather comfortable actually, and it feels far more secure than the leather straps I was using before.”

Zycor tested the blade’s extension, and it smoothly shot out and locked securely in place. He then retracted the blade without issue. Zycor continued his explanation, “The blade looks fixed and extends far smoother than before, it even feels more stable as well. And it retracts perfectly fine.”

Jorvaal, at a loss for words, said, “I see… Well, I suppose if you are happy with it there is no issue.”

Zycor, looking at the gauntlets, both of which were now on, cracked a smile, “Yeah… they are awesome.”

After a round of goodbyes, Jorvaal departed for his shop, pleading under his breath that Skal had not burned the place down.. Zycor fiddled around with the gauntlets for a little longer, trying to figure out how to take them off. He found a button on top of a gear looking dial that was inside of the gauntlet. When he pressed the button, the dial came out of the gauntlet. Zycor tried turning it clockwise, but to no avail. When he tried turning it counter-clockwise however, the gauntlet freed his arm. After he removed his arm and released the dial, it returned to its original position yet remained exposed. Zycor became increasingly fascinated with the mechanism.

Eager to use his new gauntlets, Zycor rushed into the guild hall. He made his way over to the quest board in hopes to find something he could do. Before he had a chance to have a good look, Adria came up behind him and put her lower arms under his armpits and picked Zycor up. “Now, what do you think you are doing?” Adria asked.

“Finding a quest to test out my new gauntlets.” Zycor replied.

Adria sighed, “That’s what I thought. Yeah, I don’t think so.”

“But why?” Zycor asked.

“Well, for starters,” Adria began, “you have not even registered with the guild properly. The only reason you went out on that mana bear hunt was because I allowed you to accompany the adventurers, not actually participate.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Zycor remained silent for a few moments before saying, “I would like to register with the guild.”

Adria smiled, “I am so happy to hear that! Now, let’s head into my office and have a nice long chat about being an adventurer.”

Suddenly worried for his own safety, Zycor quickly said, “I have suddenly decided I do not want to register with the guild at the moment.”

Adria, maintaining her ‘cheerful’ smile, responded, “How does it feel to want? My office, now please.”

Adria then threw Zycor over her shoulder and brought him up to her office, all while the adventurers present laughed and wished him luck.

After about an hour or so, an exhausted Zycor exited Adria’s office. He leaned on the railing and looked down at the adventurers who, after they noticed, looked up at Zycor. He lifted his hand up revealing his Adventurers license. The adventurers erupted into cheers as they all thrusted their mead into the air. As Zycor came down the stairs he was slapped on the back and noogied by the adventurers. Barroo nodded in approval as Zycor walked past him and Clyde outstretched his hand for a handshake, saying, “Welcome to the club kid.”

Zycor, as he shook Clyde’s hand, responded, “Thanks, but this is only a beginners license. Mom said I have to prove that I’m ‘not suicidal anymore.’”

Having heard Zycor’s comment, a familiar figure sitting at a table began to laugh. “Hell kid,” the man began, “what did you do to get someone to put a condition like that on you? You must be almost as crazy as some orcs!”

Zycor looked over towards where the man spoke from. Some of the adventurers moved aside so he could see, Zycor saw the half orc Baz and his friend Mylon.

“Baz,” Mylon started, “please do not give the guild masters kid any ideas. The last thing we need is to be blacklisted from the guild because your comment spurred the kid to do something reckless.”

Baz, in an attempt to defend himself, replied, “What do you mean? I said almost. A-l-m-o-s-t.”

Mylon, done with Baz’s crap, massaged his forehead as he said, “Baz, that changes literally nothing.”

Zycor walked over to them and asked, “You guys are the people from a few nights ago, right?” making a fist with his right hand and putting it to the left side of his chest, the posture assumed to show one's sincerity when speaking, he continued, “Thank you again for helping us out then.”

Baz, taken aback by the sudden politeness being shown to him, responded, “Woah now kid, it’s not a big deal. They were just pissing me off.”

Mylon finished his drink and gently set his mug on the table. “Your posture is wrong, kiddo,” Mylon commented, pointing at Zycor’s left hand that was limp at his side, “When you thank someone, you are supposed to use your left hand and bring it to the right side of your chest. The way you are now is for when you are apologizing.”

Zycor, putting his right arm down, “Oh, my bad. I’m still learning the whole ‘etiquette’ thing. Mom said it would be useful to know at some point.”

“Don’t worry about it kiddo, it's just a habit of mine to correct posture and things like that. Comes with the territory of being-” Mylon stopped abruptly before he finished, “Well, it’s just a habit.”

Zycor shrugged, thanked them again, and turned to head back to the board of quests.

Baz began to poke at Zycor, “Already going for a job kid? HA, well, try not to crap yourself while you pick some herbs or something, I have heard that there might be bees!”

Annoyed, Zycor marched over to the quest board and scanned it for a quest that had nothing to do with herbs. He grabbed the first one that caught his eye, it talked about a C ranked dungeon. Zycor had no idea what the ‘C’ meant, but it was about clearing a dungeon, so it would serve his purpose.

He brought the quest over to Aislin, who was currently handling the quest approval desk. He slammed the quest down on the table and said, “I want this one.”

Aislin looked at the quest then back to Zycor and asked, “You know what this is, right?”

Zycor responded, “Yes, I can read. It’s about clearing out a dungeon, right?”

“Yes, a C ranked dungeon.” Aislin said in a stern manner.

The confused look on Zycors face told Aislin all she needed to know. She sighed, “I see. you don’t know anything about dungeon levels.” Composing her thoughts, Aislin continued, “Alright Zy, listen up. There are various types of dungeons that have differences in how they are laid out, monster types, dungeon size, and the spawn rate of monsters. Because of this, dungeons are ranked based on these various conditions. The rankings are from F to A, F being the lowest and A being the highest adventurers are allowed to deal with. There are S ranked dungeons, but those are handled by an entire military force that is possibly accompanied by a hero. A C-ranked dungeon's thinning quest requires a minimum of five people, two of whom need to be at rank four and the rest at a minimum of five. Considering there are six ranks, and you are at the bottom, and alone, you cannot take this quest.”

Zycor irritatedly walked back to the quest board, re-pinned the quest, took a different quest, and walked back over to Aislin. He handed it to her as she sighed, “Zycor… this is a rank D dungeon, still too high for you. The difficulty and recommended party ranks and size are literally on the bottom of the poster, below the reward.”

Zycor nodded, “Yeah, but I think I could take it on just fine, don’t you think?”

“Zycor,” Aislin started, “it’s not about whether or not I think you can do it alone or not, but there are rules. You can’t attempt this at your current rank alone, end of story.”

Coming out of her office, Adria asked, “Ok, what is going on out here?”

Aislin let out a sigh of relief, since she didn't have to argue with Zycor anymore, “Adria, thank the goddess! Zycor is being stubborn about taking on this quest despite me telling him he cannot.”

Making her way over to check out the quest causing so much trouble, she looked at Zycor. Adira, with a soft and soothing tone, stated, “Zycor sweety, there is no way in this timeline or any other that I would let you take this on alone.”

Zycor, being rather upset by this, actually managed to visibly pout ever so slightly. “But mom, I can do this no problem, trust me.”

Adria, who was not used to seeing Zycor visibly show emotion, caved slightly and said, “Oh fine.” She pointed towards Baz and Mylon, “But those two are to go with you.”

Baz, doing a spit take, exclaimed, “Excuse me? I don’t take on quests just because I am told to do so.”

As he turned to face Adria, he was met with a glare that silently gave the ultimatum to either do as she says or perish. Baz stood up and walked over to retrieve Zycor and said, “Welp, looks like we are adventuring buddies now! Let’s get the hell out of here!”

Mylon, who had gotten up along with Baz, let out a heavy sigh, “And more trouble yet again… shocker.”

“HEY,” Baz shouted as they were walking out of the guild hall as he threw Zycor on his shoulder, “it’s not my fault this time and you know it!”

Zycor waved to everyone and said, “See you guys later, I guess.”