Birdsong graced my ears. I sat up in bed. I was still relishing my newfound freedom. Waking up in a place of my choosing whenever I wanted was something I didn’t realize how much I missed. I yawned and stretched my shoulders. I opened the wooden window next to my bed to let fresh air in. The sounds of a bustling city brimming with life filled my background. The call of street vendors advertising foods, the clopping of horsedrawn carts, and the cheerful laughter of children.

I crawled out of bed and freshened up. In the corner of the room was a bowl of water. I splashed my face quickly and slicked back my hair slightly. I crept down the stairs still yawning.

I was greeted by the lady who ran the place.

“Hello there young man!” she said. “Would you be interested in our morning special?”

“Yes,” I said in response. I was in the mood to be surprised.

“Make yourself comfortable,” she said gesturing toward the tables and chairs. I took a seat. I yawned once more. I patted my money pouch. It was lighter than I would have liked. I needed to get a job or something. The money wasn’t supposed to last me that long either way, since it was only for getting me off the ground. With my skills, I could get a good job. My skills were pretty precise. I could get an academic job, my education alone should be enough to get me at least a decent job. The academic level in the twenty-first century compared to what was presumably the 1400s wasn’t even in the same galaxy especially when you considered that most people here didn’t even go to school. Combine that with my magical ability that would be more than enough for a good job. The only downside I could think of would be that getting the credentials would take some time. That ruled out that sort of job. It would most likely need to be some sort of physical labour. A job where you can earn money right away without having to wait.

“Thank you for waiting!” said the woman. She placed a bowl of steaming soup in front of me. Then a platter of white puffy bread beside it.

I took a sip of the hot liquid. The heat traveled down my throat all the way to the tips of my fingers and toes. It warmed me up nicely. It had a salty savouriness that paired well with the light bread. The meat chunks and potato pieces were hearty. Before I knew it I had tipped the bowl back and taken my last gulp.

“My, my you’re a hungry young man aren’t you,” said the woman.

“Can I get one more,” I said raising a finger.

“Sure thing, this one’s on the house, “

“Thank you!”

“You gotta show customer loyalty to us though,” she said grinning.”It’s not often we get new customers.”

“You have my word,” I chuckled in response. Even though it was a restaurant. It felt like the meal was made personally for me. It was of course but it was different. It felt like I was sitting at home, getting a meal made for me by my mom. I didn’t think I’d get to experience that again.

I whistled as I walked down the street with my hands in my pocket. I had asked the lady for places of work. She suggested I check out the construction sites. They were usually offering jobs to anyone available saying they always needed more hands. She mentioned that many didn’t stay for long though as it was tough labour.

I crowd was coming down the street in the opposite direction. I moved to the side of the street to slip through them. I sensed slippery fingers within the crowd. I felt delicate hands pat my belt. I sent a spark of electricity at the wandering hand. It instantly withdrew, the scowling face that belonged to the hand moved away from my side of the crowd as well.

“I’m sorry but I don’t have time,” said a female voice.

On the side of the road. A girl around my age with golden-blonde hair and a large backpack was standing by some men. One was talking to her while the other was reaching for her bag.

It seems pickpocketing and petty crimes were all too common in this city. It made sense considering there were many travelers that frequented this city. The locals were probably too familiar with the pickpocketing thief’s to get tricked by it while foreigners who weren’t aware of it would be many times more susceptible to it. I kicked the man in the shin as subtly as one could in the same swing my leg took moving forward. The man howled in pain clutching his hurt leg while hopping around on the other.

The man looked around for the person who had done it.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Hey, come back here,” they shouted in my direction.

It seemed I hadn’t been sneakily enough.

I sped up not looking back. I turned a corner, it was a dead-end.

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Hey, where the hell do you think you’re going!” said an angry voice.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said raising my hands innocently.

“Don’t try and act dumb, we both know you were running away,” said the man I had kicked.

His burly partner was behind him. “Let’s get him instead,” he said.

He withdrew a dangerous large-looking knife.

This is too long, I’m to busy to deal with this, I’ll take out the guy closest to me first. I crouched slightly and relaxed my body. I darted forward.

A golden net surrounded my vision, the fine strands spreading out in the air. It was then I realised what it was, It wasn’t a net it was hair - golden blonde hair.

The mana trails were condensing immensely in the air around the men.

“Take that!” shouted a female voice. The two men collapsed into the ground as if a heavy weight had been pressed down on them. Their bodies cracked the paved street as they were pressed deeper into the ground. The veins on their necks bulged as they tried to resist the immense force.

The girl looked over her shoulder, “Are you alright?”

I stood up straight and nodded. “You saved me before they could do anything to me, thank you.”

She flashed a smile, “Just doing my job! Besides,” she said. “You went out of your way to help me first,”

“Oh no, I need to be somewhere!” she exclaimed abruptly.

“It was nice meeting you!” she shouted disappearing around the corner.

I stood there dazed for a moment before I remembered that I needed to be somewhere as well. I walked for a bit before stopping in front of a large building. A large sign displaying crossed swords and a shield on a square shaped crest hung above the door.

I swung open the door. The innkeeper had said if I wanted a job fast that also met my requirements going to the adventurer’s guild would be my best bet. They specialised in everything from herb-picking to fighting dragons.

I walked past a group of tables with armour-clad people drinking beer and wine laughing heartily and talking with slurred drunken speech.

“I would like to be an adventurer,” I said to the uniformed lady at the front desk.

“Of course,” she said brightly. She had obsidian black hair, hazel-colored eyes and glasses.

“There’s some paperwork we have to do first and then you’ll be right on your way to being a fine adventurer,” she said. “Is that all right?”

I nodded.

“Ok then!” she said cheerfully. She took forth some papers from behind the desk. “I’ll need your name and age first, after that we need to apply a mana test to determine your starting rank which is also known as your predicted rank,”

“My name’s Sebastian and I’m seventeen,” I said. I figured there was no harm in me giving my real name and age, there wasn’t anyone that really knew it anyways that could track me down.

“That’s an odd name,” she said holding the pen to her lips,” how do you spell that?”

I shrugged, “Anyway you can.”

She scribbled down words for a second. I leaned slightly forward. The letters were smooth with no sharp edges or corners and was written right to left from up to down. It wasn’t similar to english in the slightest. It would be a pain if I had to learn the language.

“Follow me,” she said gesturing behind the register. She led me to a room with a giant machine that took up most of the already small space.

“We have one of the latest models,” she said excitedly, “Daedalus was a close friend to King Gorger and donated this to the kingdom.”

“Place your hands here,” she said gesturing to a horizontal pole that protruded from the machine.

I placed my hands on it.

“Send your mana through the handhold into the machine and it will measure your mana output,” she said. “Do it full force so that we can get an accurate measurement.”

I sent magic coursing through my hands and into the machine. It whirred and buzzed. Its soft vibrations built up until it shook violently. I eased my flow of mana.

I moved my hands from the device and turned to the lady. She was staring at me her face pale and her mouth slightly agape.

“...Hello?” I said.

“This machine is capable of measuring up to S Class, but you still almost burnt out the machine,” she stammered. “What has been going on around here lately, there was another guy - a beastkin that matched the results,” she said placing a hand on her forehead.

A piece of paper rolled out from a slit in the device. She inspected it.

“Your predicted rank is S class!” she exclaimed. “That’s incredible, this has only happened twice before in the 400-year history of this guild!”

“What are the S Class quests then?” I asked.

“You can’t do those yet,” she said shaking her head. “I might as well explain the entire basic system. Quests and adventurers are ranked from E Class all the way to S Class, any ranks above that are mythical, and any ranks below that are essentially insignificant. The rank you got now is more accurately your predicted rank based on your mana readings. You can’t actually accept quests that high initially. You need to do what’s called a preliminary quest to test your abilities to see if you’re capable of performing at that level. Currently, you can’t accept quests higher than C Class.”

That sounded like a pain. “I only need to do one?” I asked.

“Just one,” she nodded.

“Lastly, I’ll need to see your proof of citizenship.”

I withdrew the silver plaque I had gotten from the guards. Shimmering letters appeared when she touched it.

“Thank you,” she said after reading it and handing it back. “Staying here for a week shouldn’t be a problem, Ariadne’s adventuring guild is recognised by all other major guilds which means you can use this for verification in those places as well. Also, you can temporarily use your guild ID for staying in different cities and you can even renew citizenships at the guild as well.”

She looked over the paperwork again nodding in amazement. “Ok,” she said, “everything is done, now you’re officially an adventurer.”

She handed me a copper plaque.

“May you be blessed by Atalanta the Goddess of traveling, exploration and adventuring!”