Are you ready to take the next step in your career with Adventure Society?
Damned right you are!
With Adventure Society your medical bills will be subsidised, your taxes will be paid and, in the likely event of your untimely death, we’ll endeavour to return your corpse (or whatever is left of it) to your next of kin.
“What, no death in service payout?” I muttered, hand resting on my cheek as we sat in the room watching the crackling screen before us.
The entire seminar was set to the backdrop of an odd, poorly drawn cartoon. The cheery voice of the narrator did nothing to help quell my boredom as each passing minute felt like an eternity.
The first video seemed more like a sales pitch, but the second was a straight up pharmaceutical-style warning. The only thing it was missing was the mandatory “please consult with the surgeon general before taking this” that I’d seen in oversees adverts.
Congratulations on passing the iron rank examination. As promised, your contract is now eligible to advance from temporary to permanent (terms and conditions do apply and you will be accepted on a probationary period of six months starting from the day you sign your paperwork. You will not be entitled to holiday pay, pension, or tax exemption by signing the Adventure Society contract. Adventure Society is in no way liable for loss of limbs, loss of life, mana-based sickness, mental health issues, rehabilitation, trauma counselling, sudden blindness, spontaneous combustion brought on by looking into the eyes of an eldritch horror, or any other ailments that may befall you in the enactment of your duties. Adventure Society also maintains the right to terminate this contract at any time, without notice).
“I’m beginning to think that this isn’t actually a very good deal,” Bell said, shifting restlessly in her seat.
“I’m inclined to agree,” I replied, “though it does make me kind of nostalgic for home in a weird way.”
“Will you two be quiet!” Panda said, turning around in his seat and shooting us a dirty look, “I’m trying to watch this.”
“Why would anyone want to watch this?” I asked him incredulously.
“I’m a sage, I love new knowledge,” he shot back, “besides, someone needs to understand the rules so you idiots don’t accidentally get yourselves kicked out.” He turned his head back to the seminar video with a greedy look in his eye.
Bell and I shared a look.
As you embark on your journey up the ranks in our illustrious, globe spanning organisation you can expect to take on some challenging quests. In this video we’ll cover the basic policies of the Adventure Society, including: what to do when facing a vicious pack of man eating Harpies, how to talk to quest givers, and most importantly, the correct procedure for filing paperwork at your local branch office.
The third collection of videos were mostly bureaucratic rubbish and I began rubber necking about halfway through. By the time I woke up we’d moved onto the final video.
Now that you’ve completed this introductory seminar, we can explain the rank structure which helps keep our company running smoothly.
The rank system:
Initial guild ranks coincide with the basic phases. At phase one (levels 1-29) you will only be eligible to enlist as a temporary adventurer. As a temporary adventurer you will only be eligible for the most basic types of quests.
At phase two (levels 30-49) you will become an iron ranker, as you all well know by now! Iron rankers make up the bulk of our worldwide operations and are given access to more challenging quests. At this level you will also be able to take quests above your current rank as long as you are in a party with at least one member of the correct rank for the quest you intend to take.
Phase three (levels 50-89) will see you promoted to bronze rank. At this stage you will be given access to quests of a multifaceted nature. This includes politically sensitive and long-term quests.
At phase four (levels 90-99) you will rank up to silver and be among our most elite members. You will be expected to tackle some of the hardest work we have available as well as mentoring rookies and running exams.
Phase five (100+) will see you promoted to gold rank. Though common on the continent, in Havar, the director is the only person of this rank.
There are also diamond, platinum and mithril ranks which can be reached after achieving the level cap, but we’ll cover those another day.
For now, get out there, new iron ranker, and keep our city-state safe!
Adventure Society: killing the monsters under your bed.
With that, the farce was finally over. Despite sleeping through most of it, I felt physically and mentally drained. Corporate life definitely was not for me.
In front of me, Panda stretched out his arms and made a satisfied groan as he hopped from his seat.
“Wasn’t that invigorating?” He asked, lighting up his pipe which he had refrained from using during the seminar.
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“No,” Bell and I both replied as we vacated our seats groggily.
“Hold on a moment,” Director Lucas said, entering the room with a swish of his cloak. “Before you leave, I need to update your cards.”
I’d almost forgotten I had a card. It was supposed to serve as my identification if I visited other branches but since I still hadn’t left Havar, I’d never actually used it.
I pulled it from my inventory and passed it to Lucas.
“My, my, it still says level nine on your card Kaleb,” Lucas said. “We really need to get something in place to allow you to update these more frequently. On the continent they have card readers at reception, maybe we should trial that here as well.”
He seemed to be speaking more to himself than to me, but his musings reminded me of the cards I had used as a wagon driver in my previous life. I had a digi-card which recorded my hours and needed to be docked periodically.
Of course a place that runs mandatory seminars would want to implement something like that, I thought, then again, it would make it easier for me to take better quests.
Director Lucas slotted my card into the funny machine on the wall which spat it back out at him. The card had changed colour to… was that iron?
Even I have to admit that’s a nice touch.
“Level 45?” Lucas asked, raising an eyebrow as he returned my ID to me. “You’ll be bronze rank soon; you’ve almost completely skipped iron rank.”
He seemed pleased, though I thought he’d be more surprised.
I quickly checked my updated card before returning it to my inventory.
Adventure Society ID:
Kaleb Akabane
Level: 45
Rank: Iron
Class: Archer / Light Skirmisher
I was pretty satisfied with the upgrade. It was nice to see all my hard work in one place… well, two places since my stats screen showed it in much greater and more satisfying detail.
“Bell, you have progressed marvellously as well,” Lucas said with a smile, “hitting level 42 is no small feat. You and Kaleb are going to be some of our top adventurers before you know it.”
“You know it!” She replied with a chirpy smile, “in fact, I think we should go out to celebrate right now.”
“Actually, I know a place we could go for food if you want to?” I replied.
“I’m afraid I’m much too busy organising everything in the aftermath of the dragon attack,” Lucas said, his face sporting a few wrinkles around his bloodshot eyes. “Please come and visit me later though, I have something important to discuss with you, but that can wait. The two of you deserve to take some time to rest after everything you’ve done for this city.”
Bell was eager to feast and I was in a pretty good mood myself, so despite wondering what it was Lucas wanted to discuss with us, we left the society and headed to the street where The Wandering Giant Inn – and pretty much everything else – was located.
Not so long ago I was attacked by an agent of Chrysus down a back alley not far from the inn. I’d fired off a Soul Shot and destroyed a local restaurant. That agent had gone on to invite me to take part in something called a high priest tournament, which I had no intention of going to.
As we walked down the busy street I saw a myriad of different construction crews working on damaged buildings and filling in cracked street paving. Despite that, many stores were still intact and commerce was flowing. After a short walk we came across a store with a little sign hanging above it: “Renegade Restaurant, Bar & Grill”. I thought I’d only given him enough to fix the door I broke, but the entire shop front was new.
“He certainly put that money to good use,” Panda mused as I approached the entrance.
“Good afternoon and welcome to…” a burly lycanid greeted us, before stopping in his tracks, “It’s you! You’re the stranger who paid to repair my restaurant. Please, come in and be seated, let me treat you and your friends to a meal, it’s the least I can do.”
The man flashed us a fangy smile as he gestured inwards. He was a flashy looking lycanid in a waistcoat and shirt. He certainly looked the part.
Inside nearly all the tables were filled with customers, happily chatting away as they ate their meals. In one corner though, the atmosphere was quite different.
“Hi, Sally!” Panda yelled, waving a stumpy paw at the muscle-bound silver ranker, “mind if we sit with you.”
Looking up from a stack of paperwork, her expression lightened a little as she waved us over.
“What are you three doing here?” She asked as we slid into the booth with her. We all had to cram into one side because the mountain of paperwork she was working on took up so much space.
“We’re celebrating finally reaching iron rank,” Bell explained, “no more fetch quests for me.”
“I never really did any fetch quests,” I mused, thinking back on the three mandatory quests I’d undertaken.
“You were basically already doing iron rank quests as a temp, Gonads,” Sally said in between scribbling on paper, “you can thank me later for that.”
“I can thank you now,” I replied cockily, “the owner has fully comped our meals for today, so, since we’re sat with you, your food is on me.”
“Wait…” Bell began, glaring at me through her large, anime-style eyes, “you never had to do fetch quests?”
“Not really, no,” I replied.
“I hate you,” she whispered ominously, “do you have any idea how annoying it is being asked to go halfway across the island to pick berries? There’s no fast travel in this world Kaleb, it takes days sometimes.”
Ignoring her outrage, I flagged a waiter down and we ordered some food. They returned quickly and a huge piece of meat with a white bone sticking through it was placed in front of each of us. It smelled divine and looked even better.
“Oh my god,” Bell breathed, “it’s the manga meat on a bone that every human dreams of! I’ve always wanted to try this.”
The browned, succulent meat practically melted off the bone and was every bit as satisfying as it looked in anime and manga. Bell was right, I too had wanted to try it since the first time I’d watched One Piece as a kid.
After we finished our food, we stayed a little while for some free drinks. The ale in Havar was divine, at least it was a damn sight better than the motor oil the dwarves served, and I had no reason to dread having a hangover the next day.
“So, what kind of quest are we doing next?” Bell asked as we supped out second round.
“What do you mean we?” I asked.
“Well, we’re basically a party now aren’t we?” She replied, her cheeks turning a light reddish colour, “I just figured we’d continue working together after everything we’ve been through.”
The thought hadn’t really crossed my mind, I’d never considered us as a party, hell, I didn’t even know how to set one up.
Then again, Bell was pretty strong and she did make for good company. Moreover, I’d feel pretty bad leaving her on her own after everything we’d been through together. She had a knack of getting into trouble and I didn’t want her death on my conscious.
“Well I guess it’s ok,” I replied, looking over to Panda who nodded back at me. “So, Panda, how do you even start a party?”
“Usually,” he replied, rubbing his chin with his paw thoughtfully, “you’d invite some friends over, maybe buy some chips and dips, put on some music and get some kegs…”
“You know that’s not what I meant,” I replied monotonously, narrowing my eyes at his amused expression.
“It’s pretty straight forward,” Sally interjected, “you can create a party in the chat function of you HUD. It’ll open a party chat which you then have to name. To make it official, you’ll need to register that name with the guild.”
Following her instructions I dived into my HUD and invited Bell to a party chat. The only sticking point was the name.
“How about, Bell’s Banditos?” The fireball mage offered.
“That’s stupid, we’re not even bandits,” Panda said, “it should be The Travelling Sage and his Lacklustre Companions.”
“That’s not a name, it’s a sentence,” Sally muttered across the table from us. “You should call yourselves, Wild Cards, because you all have such different abilities.”
“This isn’t a deck builder, or an 80’s teen superhero show,” I replied with a shake of my head. “How about Dissident Flame?”
The others took a moment to consider my idea, which I took to be a good sign. Panda nodded slowly as he thought it over and Bell looked a little confused. In the end, it was Sally that spoke first.
“I like it, it sounds very official,” she said, “just don’t go getting full of yourselves just because you have a team now.”
After a little more back and forth which was mostly Bell putting forth names like: The B Team, B-Men and Bell’s Company, we eventually settled on Dissident Flame as our team’s name.
“Great, I’ll get it filed with Lucy tomorrow,” I said, after finishing my fourth ale. It had taken us a while to agree on a name and we’d gone through our fair share of freebies.
Chances were that Bell was going to be the more memorable of the three of us anyway, and I was happy to lead from the shadows and let her take the spotlight. I just wanted to level up and get more powerful and I didn’t need to paint a target on my back for rival teams and cultists.
“So, back to my original question,” Bell began, “what kind of quest are we going to do next.”
“Actually,” I began tentatively, “I was thinking about going to the continent.”