Back inside, the receptionist, Grift, was explaining the basic working of the guild to Sylvia. “The guild ranks go from D to A, technically E and S as well, but the former is simply to provide civilians an ID and allow them to post requests on the bulletin board over there,” he gestured to the board she’d previously noticed upon entering the building, “while the latter is used so infrequently that the few S rank adventurers that exist likely won’t matter for you whatsoever. In fact, don’t put your hopes up about interacting with A ranks either; it can’t exactly be said that there are many of them in the country.”
“Makes sense.” She nodded affirmatively. “With the exception of E and S rank, each rank is split into minus, regular, and plus, though that’s mainly to give an idea of what the estimated threat level of a quest is, and if it’s too high for you to take on. It doesn’t affect what missions you can take, as only your letter rank matters in that regard. As for increasing said rank, just ask about it once you either pass level 250 or can confidently beat creatures over level 200.”
“Wait, my level has to be over 250 for me to pass by that, but I only need the ability to deal with level 200 creatures to become C rank? That doesn’t feel like it makes a lot of sense.” With the exception of the two craftsmen, everyone else who overheard the question stared at her with a stupefied expression, though Halaetain’s party quickly recovered as they remembered her situation.
Grift on the other hand, he just rolled his eyes and answered. “I’m genuinely curious how you don’t know this already, but no matter. It’s because roughly after level 100, it’s estimated that creatures begin to grow stronger faster than most people. That the reason the automatic increase through level continues to grow further and further away from the creatures, as we want to ensure that we aren’t just sending people to their deaths. However, since both titles and classes can change things up a lot, we have other options to rank up, but explaining those can wait until you can take down level 200 creatures.”
“I see. That does make quite a lot of sense. Since that’s the case, expect that I’ll likely take one of those other options. Anyhow, care to tell me a bit about how quests work, then I’ll get out of your hair.” Aware that her titles almost guaranteed that she’d be able to fight at least her own level, if not even a higher level, she figured there’d be no harm in at least telling him to expect it.
“Got it. If you want more info before then, just ask Mikhail, I heard he ranked up that way, “he pointed at the blonde youth. “As for the quests, then it’s fairly simple. For a fee, any guild member can post one, but most civilian quests are of a simpler nature. The majority of the requests are from either the town, ruler of the area, merchants’ guild, craftsmen’s guild, or sometimes even the adventurer guild themselves. The three quest types that will be the most relevant for you are the hunting, gathering, and subjugation quests. Most subjugation quests you’ll find are from the town, the local ruler, or the guild, as the focus is more on safety than material gain. In return for not being required to bring back more than a proof of kill, the reward is generally around the same as gathering quests. Gathering quests just task you with retrieving some kind of material, though they’re often guarded by creatures or found in hard to reach places. In both quest types, you can always bring back dead bodies in the hope of selling them for more, just like you can always do after killing creatures. Finally, you have the hunting quests, which are the most popular ones. They’re essentially a mixture of the two, as they require you to kill creatures and obtain their materials. Lastly, there’s the act of selling carcasses. The guild operates quite similar to a broker between you guys and the craftsmen and merchants, to allow you to focus on hunting. In addition to the selling, we can also take care of the dismantling of the corpses, given they’re in a proper state, though at a 50% fee of the total price. If you want to, you can always dismantle them yourself, but be aware that an improper job may lower the price you’ll get.” With that, Grift concluded his lengthy explanation and Sylvia bid him farewell, as they made their way out of the guild.
With that all taken care of, they parted ways with most of the adventurer group, with the exception of Mikhail, who claimed he had little better to do than train like always. Thus, all they needed now was to secure lodging and some part-time or assistance jobs for Enelise and Philip. With the guidance of Mikhail, they quickly located the couple smithies in town, where they were quickly employed. It turned out that even the best craftsman was just approaching Experienced rank and was already close to moving back to the main city, so them being Proficient and Experienced respectively made their abilities very attractive.
Since they needed to get to work immediately, Sylvia was left with Mikhail, who turned out to be full of good information. Considering the situation back home, she inquired about orcs, since his adventurer experience was likely more reliable than what Philip had overheard. As it’d turn out, avoiding the orcs was the best choice they could’ve made, as the average orc chief would be between level 300 and 400, or what they classified as a tier 7 creature. The ones at level 150+ were the enhanced orcs, who were a tier 5 creature.
“So, what exactly is the tier system? It sounds like the different evolutionary stages for creatures, but how are they that well defined?” In her momentary confusion, it slipped her mind it could be done in a somewhat scientific manner. Raising his hands in a gesture of surrender, Mikhail answered with a grin, “you caught me, I have no answer to give to you there. I can only speculate that they have observed monsters evolve and then killed them immediately after, which then presented a pattern. Or it could simply be an uncountable number of adventurers sharing their experience with the guild and them refining it. All I know is that it exists, and that’s enough for me. Though if I had to bet on something, I’d say the latter, as the former sounds unnecessarily tedious.”
“I suppose that makes sense. I mean, if I think back to the goblins I’ve killed, I can probably estimate the first couple tiers pretty well. Tier 1 would be up to level 10, because all goblins I’ve seen higher than that have been enhanced goblins, who in turn seemed to go to 24-26 before becoming hobgoblins. After that, I can only say that the enhanced hobgoblins I’ve killed were between level 50 and 60.” Speaking carefully, Sylvia went over her own experience in the area.
With a wide smile at his point being proven, he replied: “See, you’re just one person, but you were already able to get quite close to the actual numbers. Tier 0 is 1 to 10, 1 is 11 to 25, 2 is 26 to 50, 3 to 5 are all 50 higher than the previous, 6 to 8 are 100 higher, and for the last I know, 9 and 10 are 250 higher.”
Doing the math as he listed the numbers, she couldn’t help but smirk at the result. “So, tier 10 ends at level 1000, huh. That’s surprisingly fitting and almost feels intentional. You sure know quite a lot about all of this.” Both of her comments made the young man smile, the first for the coincidence and the second in pride.
“I actually never thought of it that way, but that is actually quite weird. As for my knowledge, it’s because I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to make it to at least B rank, so I read up on the creature tiers I’d be fighting, which are tier 9 and 10. As for you, D rank span tier 0 to 5, though 3 and 4 will likely be the most relevant for you. When you pick a quest on bulletin board, you’ll be able to see how the tiers are used for estimating creature danger.”
Nodding along, Sylvia made sure to commit the information to memory, as it was clearly very important and relevant information for her position as an adventurer. “Thank you for the multiple explanations. If you don’t mind, would you be willing to show me around the town? It may not be big, but getting a proper guide would help me better understand the area.”
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Agreeing to do just that, they spent the next half an hour traversing the relatively small town, with him showing her all the relevant areas, mostly consisting of different specialized stores and a slew of inns. He also explained that this town was just one of many outpost or frontier settlements to help protect the nation from the dangers lurking in the forest. For that reason, the only ones who really lived here were adventurers, less skilled craftsmen, inn staff, those working for the guilds, and the families of workers here.
Anytime a craftsman became decently skilled, they sought to move to the nearby city of Oriadale, which to some extent served as a hub for well over 30 of these towns, as they there had greater access to needed materials and customers. This even included most woodworkers, who prioritized being able to learn from those more experienced. With most adventurers travelling quite a lot between the different cities and towns, the need for inns was a lot higher here than in most places in the country.
In return, she ended up telling a little about herself. Though she kept it to what had actually happened since she was transported to this world, as she wanted to avoid increasing the amount of made up stories to keep track of too much. Thus, she explained how she had settled in a cave for about a month, had met Enelise and Philip, and finally how she’d exterminated the goblin village. She mentioned the orc-camp as well, thereby answering Mikhail’s previous curiosity at her asking about orcs.
Eventually, they would up back at the adventurers’ guild, which by now had considerably more people inside. At Sylvia’s request to see his fighting style, he obliged surprisingly easily, almost seeming happy to do so. Thus, he led her back to where she’d been tested earlier that day, the courtyard behind the guild building.
Once there, he grabbed one of multiple practice bows, explaining, “since most adventurers use quite powerful weapons, the guild prefers us using their basic equipment when training against targets, as everything has been tuned be as non-destructive as possible. Though that’s not to say that this bow is lacking in poundage, it has just been mana crafted to deliberately weaken the actual damage when striking.”
Before Sylvia could inquire about the people clearly training against targets with their actual weapons, he added. “Though if you have the ability to control your damage area and can make your own targets, then you’re free to use your actual weapon. As for why I’m using a training weapon and not my own, let’s just say that I find these weapons to provide the best practice for me.” From both his tone and turn of phrase, she could tell that he wasn’t telling the full truth, but since she wasn’t either, then she didn’t feel a need to press the matter.
In a single smooth motion, Mikhail took a proper stance and fired three arrows at a target, perfectly striking both eyes and the heart of a target 20 meters away. It was only once she thought about the display of skill that she realized that he’d held all the arrows in the hand at once, firing off one at a time in rapid succession.
She whistled an impressed sound, “amazing shot. I feel like most people would have no chance against you.” Though the compliment was genuine, the response was a strained laugh. “Ah, if only it was that simple. There are many people who can react to or outright dodge even my fastest arrows, not to mention how hard it can be to deal actual damage to anything but vitals on beasts, and they don’t stand still. Still though, thanks for the compliment.”
Recalling the size of the bear she’d slain; it wasn’t hard to understand his frustration. “I understand that sentiment. If you recall that bear, I mentioned previously, I only survived by stabbing through its palate and making the stone tip of my spear explode inside its mouth, killing it on the spot. Pretty much everything I’d done until that point had done next to no damage.”
“Sounds rough, but luckily you survived the encounter,” he gave her a friendly smile, and after taking a quick look at the sun’s position, said, “well, I suppose I should go meet up with Halae and the others, it’s getting fairly late. Your companions are likely free soon as well. Let’s meet up again some time soon.” As soon as Sylvia replied and agreed to meet up, Mikhail was out of there.
Meeting back up with Enelise and Philip after an hour of spear practice, they got themselves a room at an inn and discussed what had happened since they split. At the mention of the orcs, Philip became slightly embarrassed after hearing that he’d spread such dangerous misinformation, though both of them assured him it was alright.
On their side, they had learned that as long as they were here, they would have all the work they could wish for, especially Enelise. As it turned out, this whole region seemed quite worse off than their homestead when it came to craftsmen, though that area was also one of the best within a very large range. Thus, even if she were to travel to the city, she would likely grow in popularity quickly, as Proficient was a high rank here, and she was good even within the rank.
With all of that stuff discussed, the time had come to rest up for the next, as Sylvia had no intention of wasting her time here.
----
The following morning, Sylvia parted ways with the two, heading over to the Adventurer’s Guild. Once there, she took a look at the different requests on the bulletin board.
>----<
Type: Gathering.
Rank: D.
Estimated threat tier: 0-3.
Reward: 5 taro per bundle.
Time limit: 1 day.
Gather at least five bundles of heru stalks, with 10 stalks for a bundle. Each stalk has to be at least 10 cm long to count for them to count, though longer ones are welcome.
>----<
>----<
Type: Hunting.
Rank: D.
Estimated threat tier: 2-3.
Reward: 5 taro per claw, 10 if they’re in perfect condition.
Time limit: 3 days.
100+ Fast Wolf claws are required. They can commonly be found in the Lupinum area to the east of the lake.
>----<
>----<
Type: Hunting.
Rank: C.
Estimated threat tier: 6 (may risk encountering a low 7).
Reward: 1 panis per square meter of fur, 1.5 if it’s in perfect condition.
Time limit: 6 days.
4-8 square meters of Krongly fur is required. They can be found in the Monachus area at the Jaco tree
>----<
…
Despite the town not being particularly large, the number of quests completely filled the board, some of large scale and others of lesser scale. After some consideration, Sylvia took down the one for wolf claws and brought it to the desk, as she’d seen other people do. Efficiently, the quest was assigned to her card, and she was informed that failure to complete the quest within the time limit would result in it being put up again, with her unable to retake it without having the materials on hand already.
Opposite the bulletin board, she found a large map that depicted the area of the forest close to the town with a lot of names written there. Once she had a rough idea of where to go, she went and found a general store and bought herself a pouch for most of the taro she had been given that morning. If everything went well, then she should be able to return with claws worth way more than the pouch. Two taro then went on half a kilo of low level jerky, with most of that price seemingly stemming from it being jerky instead of fresh meat. With all her prep done, she set out for the hunt.
Before she could leave the town, she had to wait in line at the gate to be checked out, though luckily everything moved quite quickly, so despite the queue being almost comedically long, it didn’t take too long to get out. The entire process was simply that she showed her adventurer’s card, and they scribbled down her name before letting her go. She wanted to ask why, but this was clearly not the time, as it was currently adventurer rush hour.
Compared to when they took the Slimus to the town, she was able to move quite a lot faster on foot, so it wasn’t long before she had arrived at the forest, at which point she just needed to locate the correct orientation points to tell her the direction. By following another path than yesterday, had arrived at a completely unfamiliar part of the forest. After a couple kilometers, she noticed the Y-shaped tree that denoted a 57 degree turn from the main path; a path that could be vaguely seen from people using it every so often.
From this point, she was to go in a straight line until she’d come upon a large lake, then she’d know it’s the right area. As if to make it clear that she had found the area, she ran into a couple varieties of blood wolves spanning level 16 to 29, all of which she easily took care of without a single wound on herself. Like that, it only took her one and a half hours to get to the lake from the town. By using the fact that her mental forest map was always oriented with north pointing up, she was able to use her known path to recognize that she was at the southeast side, giving her at least a twenty-minute walk to get close to the east side.