Entering the building, the floor was packed out, on one side were tables filled to the brim with people dressed in all sorts of clothing, armour and an assortment of weapons. All of them were eating simple food, like meat still on the bone or bread, while also drinking what I could tell was alcohol by the smell. The atmosphere here was…joyous, so much so that it seemed no one here was in a bad mood.
As I’m glancing around, a woman approached me from the other side of the room. Giving me a smile as she stops before me, she speaks directly to me.
“Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild. Did you need any help?”
Looking middle aged, she wore an outfit that is a mix of black and white, with a ribbon around the collar and frills on the bottom of her shirt. She had a slender figure, blue hair and pink eyes.
Still rather confused on what an adventurer is, along with how they earned coins, I decided to do what Roland and Floof recommended, take this so-called test, but first get some information. While I’m hesitating on what to say, the woman simply waited for me while smiling.
“I-I want to know what an adventurer is.” Deciding it’s best to figure out what I am getting myself into, I asked the woman the question I needed to know. Seeing her nod her head without changing her expression, she gestures behind her, towards a door.
“It’ll be best to explain in private so we don’t end up blocking the door.”
Seeing her turn and walk, I follow behind her as she steps through the door she had pointed out. Arriving in a small room with two couches in it and a table between them, she sits down on one while I sit opposite her.
“My name is Elise. You don’t need to feel awkward about asking any questions you may have. We usually get evolved monsters like yourself being recommended to become adventurers and they don’t know what they’re getting themselves into.”
Deciding not to correct her about me being an evolved monster, I speak up “So what does becoming an adventurer mean?”
Adjusting herself slightly, she leans forward with both elbows on her knees while holding her head.
“Becoming an adventurer is nothing overwhelming or complicated. As an adventurer you’ll be able to accept jobs from the Guild and depending on the outcome of those jobs you’ll receive payment. The higher level the job the more of a payout there is.
When you first join, you’ll be tested to find out which grade you belong to. Within the Guild, your grade will determine what jobs and missions you can accept, and to raise a grade you’ll need to pass the appropriate test. The lowest grade, and the most common starting point, is Bronze tier. The next grades in order are Silver, Gold, Platinum, Ruby, Black and finally Sapphire. Each grade has five ranks, starting at E rank up to A rank, you must be A rank to be eligible for the test to go up a grade.
Majority of adventurers will only get to Gold rank in their lifetimes, getting higher than that takes a lot more than just some levels or strength. Out of the thousands or adventurers I’ve met, I’ve only ever seen 2 Black grades and no Sapphire grades. You may have seen those who have a piece of coloured metal on their identity chains, that indicates their grade.”
Recalling Roland, I remember he had a Black metal piece. Asking Elise about Roland, she looked rather surprised.
“You’ve met Roland? You must’ve been quite lucky. Yes, he was previously an adventurer before joining the Royal Guard. The floors of this building are separated based on your grade, Bronze is only able to go to the second level directly above us, Silver to the third and so on. You can also receive discounts from the stores around here based on your grade.
Your System will also display your grade, this is done by a Skill Gem that we provide that updates your System automatically. We’re not entirely sure how it works, these Skill Gems have existed for so long that the records about them have been lost to time.”
Leaning back and smiling at me, she continues to explain.
“The jobs you are offered will be pinned on the floor of your grade, and a recommended level will be provided. The Guild will not allow you to partake in any jobs that are 10 or more levels higher than you are. You are also welcome to join or form a Party to undertake jobs, and in those cases you are unable to participate in jobs 15 levels or higher.
Any actions you take while outside of the Adventurer’s Guild are your responsibility, but if you’re found to be doing anything against the law of the country or city you’re located in, your membership will be revoked. In the case of participating in wars between nations or cities, the Adventurer’s Guild will only intervene if you’re caught doing anything extremely immoral.
The Adventurer’s Guild is worldwide, we are recognised worldwide, so no matter where you are you’ll be able to undertake jobs. As a heads up, a simple test is performed to find out which grade you are so you’d be unable to lie in another city to get higher grade jobs.”
Saying all of this flawlessly, like she’d explained this multiple times, she smiles and leans back once again. As I sat there and thought over everything, I felt Alice getting restless on my head, likely bored of what was happening.
“Oh, and your bonded pet will also be paired with you, they won’t have a separate status to you. Did you have any questions?”
Blinking, I wasn’t sure what to ask. I felt rather confused on what the grades meant, I just wanted to get those coins to make sure I could stay at the inn.
“D-do I get these coins?” Pulling out the one I had, she kept her smile on her face, seemingly not bothered by my question…or rather, used to them.
“While you won’t be earning gold coins like that right away, you can certainly earn enough to live. The more effort you put in, and the higher grade you get, the more you earn. Of course, it all depends on the difficulty of the job you participate in.”
I found that easy to understand, the harder the work the more I would get. Thinking of what else I wanted to know, I only thought of one question.
“What type of jobs are there?”
“Many. Ranging from helping citizens of Vale with small tasks up to clearing high level dungeons or killing dragons, it all comes down to what is within your capabilities as an adventurer and your grade.”
Nodding, I thought about what this would entail for me. I needed to find a way back to Crater Hell as soon as possible, so being able to do some jobs to level up would help immensely. I also understood the need for these coins but I didn’t know what to use them for. Maybe I should look at going to that Academy thing Rolan spoke of as well.
Thinking it over, I decided it would be best to become an adventurer until I got back to Crater Hell, or at least meet up with Olivia. Since she hadn’t been near me after that teleport circle, she must’ve been sent somewhere else. Maybe she would also become an adventurer and we could find each other.
After thinking about what I wanted to do for a while, I finally looked up at Elise and nodded. “I want to become an adventurer.”
As if she had expected my answer, she claps her hands and winks. “Got it. We’ll conduct a rather quick test to determine your grade and rank, then a small interview and you’ll be set! Please follow me.”
As she gets up, she gestures to another door within the room. Standing, I follow behind her as she leads me into the next room, in it was a desk to my right and the room direction behind it had a huge arena situated in the middle. We were the only ones in the room. Elise moved to the desk and pulled out a blank, white metal plate, a notepad and an orb.
“Alright dear, I want to let you know I will be doing a System check for your information.” Feeling a bit confused on why she told me this, I remembered how in Zalus it was considered rude to just System check anyone, a reason why I’d been avoiding doing the same. As I wait, I see Elise go from smiling to a frown to downright surprised.
Tapping the desk for a moment, Elise takes out a piece of paper from her pocket and as I feel a small surge of mana the piece of paper ignites and disappears into ash. Smiling at me slightly, she says “Just a moment dear, I’ve summoned someone here to confirm a few details.”
“D-did something happen?” I must’ve looked worried as she smiles more brightly.
“Nothing bad, I’ve just noticed some details that are rather…unique about you, thus I need to get some assistance to correctly assess you. Oh, here they come now.”
Turning towards the door I heard open, I saw a rather bulky man who had a large hammer attached to his back, a scar running down his face, across an eye that had an eyepatch over it, and wore very heavy plate armour. It seemed like he was dressed for battle. Around his neck is a necklace similar to the one I had and attached was a red metal plate, signifying he is a Ruby grade adventurer.
“Miss Alisha, this is Xander, a Ruby adventurer and one of the executives of this Guild branch. Xander, this is a new applicant that I need some assistance with.”
Nodding once to me, Xander moved to the desk and looked down with a frown. Pointing to the notes, he sends a questioning glance towards Elise. “Ah! I haven’t written anything down yet, my apologies. It’s due to the information from her System.”
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Sending me a curious gaze, Xander finally spoke. “I’m checking your information.” Speaking with a low, gravely voice, Xander kept it simple. After a few seconds he nods once and starts writing, however I could see a bit of confusion mixed in. After writing fast for a few seconds, he stands straight and walks over to me, pointing to my necklace. Taking it off, I pass it to Xander who takes it over to the desk.
Placing the necklace on the orb, it shines for a moment before he removes the necklace and passes it to Elise, who brings it back to me. Similar to earlier, the orb turns into a liquid as Xander catches it with a piece of paper, and writing appears on it. Comparing the notes he wrote with the new piece of paper, he then turned to Elise who had walked back to his side.
“Bronze, B rank. Too low level for Silver. Promote to tentative Bronze A rank if the test is performed well.”
Moving once again, he stops to the side of me and pats me on the shoulder. “Good luck.” Leaving me with that single comment, he left the room through the door. A bit surprised at how quickly he had arrived and left, I turned to Elise again to see she was reading the notes that had been left behind.
“Right, well the test is usually a bit more in depth than that. Since an executive has given his judgement, I’ll conduct the test now as a formality before registering you as an adventurer. The test is simple, a spar with me and based on your combat prowess you’ll be given a gra…no, you’ve been a grade already. The spar will determine if you start at B or A rank.
Now, what type of weapon do you use? I see your magicks are Lunar and Wind primarily thanks to the information from the Royal Guard, both with exceptional potential. Do you use Lightning magic at all?”
Putting Alice down on the desk, I respond to her as we walk to the arena. “I only use my fists and I know some Lightning magic but no spells for it…I don’t understand it. Is it a good thing to be A rank instead of B rank?”
Nodding, Elise stopped as we arrived at the arena. “You’ll have access to a few more jobs, and you might be able to take some jobs for low rank Silvers if an opportunity arises. Plus you can earn more money…coins that is, since you’ll get a slightly higher cut.”
Nodding, I planned to take this spar seriously. Elise walks away from me until she is about thirty metres from me. Looking at my situation, I am against someone who is at an unknown level, it’s currently daytime so I’m significantly weakened and I don’t have my armour nor Alice. Thinking of the best way forward, I see Elise take a stance.
“If you hit me once I’ll consider the test completed, otherwise we will spar for five minutes. Begin!”
Kicking up my wind, for a moment I revelled in the feeling, I haven’t fought anything seriously since Dracovish. Wrapping each body part in wind, I moved in quickly towards Elise, who looked relaxed but kept eyes on me as I zig zagged towards her. Stepping within ten metres of her, I dug a feeling up from within.
“Domain. Mystical Lunar Starfield!”
Expanding my domain as quickly as possible, the surroundings transformed, a lake below my field reflecting a night sky with a large moon hanging in it. Elise’s face goes from relaxed to surprised as I used a Lunar Blessing on myself and increased my speed to the fastest I could.
Dashing to her side with a speed that shocked even me, I gathered Lunar magic into my fist and threw out a Star Dust fist. Reacting in time, Elise bent backwards as she dodged. At the same time, she held up a palm and flicked her wrist up. Suddenly, the wind around me cancelled out, taking me by surprise as Elise threw an elbow towards my face.
Using my own palm, I deflect the elbow away from me as I pivot on my foot and throw a Lashing Fire Kick out at her midsection, at the same time I create a wall of wind behind her to prevent her dodging it. Watching in surprise, she vanishes from the spot, like she’d never been there before. Feeling danger coming from behind me, my body dodges on reflex as a spike of earth shoots past me. Pivoting, I kick up the wind around me and explode it outwards.
Spotting Elise behind me, she stumbles from the wind hitting her as I quickly run at her, swinging a Star Dust fist at her chest. Seeing her expression, she had a mostly serious face as she deflects my fist and fists her other wrist up. Chains made from earth sprung from the lake, I dodge one set as the other set binds my left leg and arm. Before I could break free, the chains quickly encased my left side as more chains binded my right side.
Before I could react, my body up to my neck was encased in earth, much too strong to break free from as I felt my domain ending. It’s still far too unstable to last long, and as it disappears I feel myself weakened due to the effects of night disappearing.
“Alright, that’s enough. You pass with flying colours.”
Tilting my head, still encased in earth magic, I knew it hadn’t been five minutes nor had I landed a blow on her. Seeing my confusion, Elise taps the earth surrounding me with a finger and smiles. The casing crumbles away, freeing me from the earthen prison.
Leading me back to the desk, Elise gestures to the previous room while she grabs the white metal plate, notepad and the paper from the orb off the desk while I pick up Alice and hold her in my hands. Sitting down once again in the previous room, she places the objects on the table and looks at me.
“So the sparring may end at my discretion. Depending on the applicant's performance, we can make a judgement call. Firstly, you have a Domain, and a fairly strong one at that, and that gives you a huge advantage. Secondly, while your fighting style is very messy and seems to rely mostly on instinct, it has good potential to become refined with some training. Lastly, your combat awareness is surprisingly good for a level 20.
When we test an applicant, we suppress ourselves to what we believe is their ideal grade and approximately their level. I myself am currently level 64, and when suppressing myself I only limit myself to earth magic, since the spells I know are based on controlling a target. You managed to force me to use wind magic on reflex, which I had no intention to do originally. I also went from high rank Bronze grade to mid Silver grade before deciding to end the sparring, which is about level 26.
Keep in mind this doesn’t mean you should go out hunting level 26 monsters, this is just based on keeping myself a step above you. Don’t get overconfident because you have a domain either, there are those out there that also have one that you may never suspect would have one, I even knew a Bronze E Rank who had one.”
While talking, Elise had been writing notes on the paper that the orb had left words on. Letting what she had told me sink in, she looks back at me and smiles once more.
“Your ranking is also determined based on a few factors, which is why I called Xander in originally since there were some unique circumstances to consider. You have an extremely rare title, Aspiring Hero, which I’ve only seen a few other times. You have to clear the True Route of a dungeon to obtain it, which is extremely difficult to manage since it’s difficult to find the True Route most of the time and after it’s completed the dungeon changes.
Your Race and Class are also very unique. Nevermind you being a human and monster hybrid, just your Class itself is unique, meaning only you have it. Because of these circumstances, it’s difficult to judge where to place you in terms of grade. The only shortcoming is your level and age, if those were higher you would no doubt be starting at mid to high Silver grade.”
Digesting the words she spoke, she picks up the white metal plate and places it on the paper. Taking a breath, she holds her palm above it as a small magic circle comes out from in front of her palm. Watching, the paper wraps itself around the small metal plate as it glows and starts sinking into the metal plate which slowly changes into a bronze colour. Soon, the glow fades as a bronze metal plate is revealed.
Nodding in satisfaction, Elise picks it up and takes out another metal plate, this one had multiple colours to it, a mix of the colours of every rank. Placing it over the bronze metal plate, a strange click rings out. Elise removes the multi coloured piece and places it back in her pocket. Seeing my curious look, she giggles.
“The multi coloured token is to register you to all branches. This plate will sync up with others around the world, that way if you lose your token we can easily reissue it at any branch. And before you ask, I have absolutely no idea how it works, I just know it does and it’s a really cool magic.”
Stretching out a hand, Elise asks for my necklace once again. Handing it to her, I watch as she attached the metal plate to it and hands it back. Putting it on, she hands me a small gem.
“This is the Skill Gem I told you about. Prompt the System to use it, and it’ll give you a new Status.”
Looking at the Skill Gem, the System gave me information.
Skill Gem: Adventurer Upgrade.
A skill gem of unknown origins, allows someone to set their occupation as Adventurer. Grade and Rank will be displayed based on your Identity Plate.
Prompting the System, the skill gem disappears into a light that shoots into my head. A small amount of information enters my mind. The information contained knowledge I knew, my grade and rank. Blinking, I see the System come up with another prompt.
Occupation set to Adventurer.
Grade: Bronze
Rank: A
Opening my Status, I saw that it had changed.
Status
Alisha, the Aspiring Hero
Race: Mystic Lunar Fox Level: 20 Experience: 5,000/100,000 Class: Lunar Fist of the Wind Class Level: 1 Class Exp: 6,000/50,000
Occupations:
Adventurer Grade: Bronze Rank: A
Standing up, Elise smiles. “Welcome to becoming an Adventurer. I’ll give you the tour and then you’re free to pick out some jobs. I do have some recommendations for you to do before accepting a job, I’ll let you know once the tour is done. Come with me, I’ll sort out your payment first.”
Getting up, we head back to the lobby. One side was still packed to the brim, with the side we came out on being relatively empty. Leading me to the reception desk, Elise goes behind it and pulls out another piece of paper, this one with some writing on it. After writing for a few seconds, she smiles and says “It’ll be 2 silvers. I take it you only have the 1 gold coin?”
Nodding, she reaches under the desk and pulls out a pouch. “I’ll throw in a freebie for you. A one time deal.” Giving me a wink, she takes the gold coin from me and then pulls out more coins and places them into the pouch, a mix of silver and bronze coins. Easily over a hundred coins in total. Glad that Elise had provided a pouch for me, she tightens the top and passes it to me with the piece of paper.
“A receipt and your pouch of coins. The receipt simply shows you made a purchase, all the shops here will provide you with one.” Nodding, I put them both away, with the pouch I placed it in my pocket.
“Alright, now that is all sorted, let's take the tour.” Getting up from the reception desk, Elise moves around it once again and starts to lead me around the building.