Chapter 5: The Old Man

Arthur, after leaving the alley, waited for a moment before he decided on his destination. The adventurer guild.

Actually, as a modern day earthling, Arthur read more than a dozen works where a character was sent to another world and entered the adventurer guild there. From the previous Adam’s memories he already knew about its existence, but as his other self was so weak, he was scared to go near the place. Now that he could be considered to be a normal male in terms of physique and with his gun in the holster, Arthur was confident that he would be able to deal with whatever the other Arthur was afraid of.

The building was easy to find. The Adventurer’s Guild was in the center of the town, a big three stories high building. Even before entering he noticed the change in the people on the road, which happened gradually. There were now many people with spears, sword, and bows. What surprised Arthur was that both women and men were in equal measure. And they treated each other equally as well. That is not to say Arthur was sexist. He was actually all for equality, as most people in his previous world were. What surprised him was that this world looked almost the same as the Middle Ages from history. Only here, women were not oppressed.

Thinking about things for a bit, he suddenly got inspired. Of course women could stand shoulder to shoulder with men. Some may even be stronger than men in this game-like world!

With his little mystery all sorted out, Arthur went into the guild. Here, what greeted him was a tavern. Most people were dressed as warriors and there were some that had robes on, which he most likely put in a mage category.

As he was quite curious about mages and their magic, he unconsciously went to an old man in a robe that was sitting alone at a table and asked.

“Excuse me, sir, could you please tell me where to register as an adventurer?” After asking the question, unbeknownst to him, the room quieted down and everyone started staring at him.

The old man, without changing his expression, looked at him up and down. His gaze revealed a look of surprise after checking him out, but soon after he furrowed his brows and said.

“Kid, this is no place for a noble. Even if you were from a ruined family don’t shame your ancestors. If you want power and fame at least join a school!” The old man was scolding Arthur with a righteous character.

For the surrounding adventurers, the identity of the old man was the most noble of existences. They knew that this old man was a Grand Mage. A title given only to mages over level 60! Hearing his world, they were even ashamed of themselves for being lowly adventurers that could not even pass level 20.

Arthur, as a former street urchin and a present word traveler had no idea of what was happening, or why this old man suddenly said he was a noble. He was about to speak and correct the old man when a voice was heard.

“Good morning, Master Darius! I am deeply sorry for making you wait. Some bandits delayed our arrival by some time. Luckily the meeting spot was easy to find.”

The speaker was a very beautiful girl. When Arthur first saw her he was stumped. The girl had golden blond hair that reached to the small of her back let loose on her shoulders, big piercing blue eyes, a small and delicate nose that made her face have an overall feeling of perfection. Her body was also stunningly beautiful, having the right curves in the right places and, along with a small waist, delicate arms and long legs made the girl look like a goddess on earth. She was, from Arthur’s estimate, a seventeen or eighteen years old, wearing a white one piece dress that hugged her upper body and flowed freely on her legs. Adorned with a big summer hat, he made the hearths of all the men and even most of the girls skip a beat.

“Hahaha! At least, you are here. I hope your people didn’t suffer too much calamity on your way. Come, let us go!” with a loud laughter, the old man stood and went near the girl. As he was about to exit, the old man turned and looked at Arthur.

“Brat, consider this your good luck. Since you met me right when I’m bringing someone to join the school, I’ll make an exception to bring you too. If you can bring out 2 gold coins, I can let you take the exam for our “Might and Magic Academy”. What do you say?” said the old man with a tone the said he would accept no refuse. Actually the old man already felt that Arthur had considerable talent in magic. He couldn’t actually know that he had 8 point of mana, but he could feel a significantly stronger magical power from his body than normal people.

Before Arthur could respond, the beauty opened her mouth.

“Master? Who is this person? And wasn’t the exam fee 10 gold?” The girl asked perplexed. She was actually quite surprised that her master would take someone to attend the exam. Her circumstances were different, she was already his disciple and was going to attend the academy to broaden her horizons. There was no way her master, one of the three Grand Mages of the country, would bother to pick up someone for an exam, much less make that person pay only a fifth of the required amount.

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Much in the same mind as the girl, Arthur was also perplexed. Who was this old man, and why would he first mistake him for a noble than ask him to come to an exam. From the faces of complete jealousy of the surrounding adventurers, Arthur realized that this could very well be an enormous chance.

“I am Arthur. A pleasure to meet you, young lady. Also, mister, I’m sorry, but I can’t join your school. Right now I’m too poor and can’t travel. If it’s not too inconvenient, I would like to respectfully decline.”

Arthur made his decision. It was not that he didn’t want to go and get training at a school, it was just that his secrets were too big. Jut the experience potion could get him in trouble. At least, he thought it was not a good idea to allow other so know of him while he was this weak. This mentality came from what he saw while seeing the world from above. There were wars everywhere in the world and the people were so powerful that it could compare with a tank from his memories. He needed at least that much power before he was comfortable.

Of course, this was merely his conjecture based on novels and movies. He didn’t actually know his he was special or not. But, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Seeing him reject the offer, the girl was about to say something but the old man was faster.

“Humph. You little brat don’t know what you’re rejecting! Don’t cry later!” After saying his piece, he grabbed the girl and, with a gust of wind, soared in the sky. This scene didn’t stun just Arthur, even the adventurers nearby motionless.

With a wiry smile, Arthur left the adventurer’s guild. He was thinking just now that he made a big mistake. A human that can fly wouldn’t care about his small talents. Why didn’t he just accept his offer?

With those toughs, Arthur no longer had any desire to join the adventurer’s guild. He was tempted at first only because of the novels he read. Joining you not actually help him in any way. In fact it may even expose some of his secrets.

While thinking of this, his mood improved somehow. Even if he rejected the old man, he already decided he was going to treat this new life of his as an RPG. He was going to level up each level and reach max.

With this decision, Arthur made for a nearby restaurant. Even if he could make food with his create ability, he wanted to know what type of food was here. And he also had another thing in mind.

After his food arrived, Arthur stared at a blue box above the food.

Horned rabbit ribs.A tasty meal!

His Analyze ability showed information about the item in front of him. He actually started using this ability from the start of his training. He could identify every item he made. Right now it was very close to reaching level 2 and allowing his to analyze people and monsters.

As he decided to go and kill monsters to level up, reaching level 2 in this skill was a must.

After the meal, Arthur left the restaurant and entered a leather shop hoping to also buy some armor aside from leveling his skill.

The shop was manned by a middle aged man. The man only nodded to Arthur when he saw him and made no other motion to greet his customer.

Arthur wasn’t bothered by this and started looking at armors in the shop. After his third leather vest, the skill upgraded. He, hastily, used it on the shop owned, for lack of a better target.

NameEvanLevel7Health100%

It was quite succinct but for Arthur it brought a sense of nostalgia. The Blue box was above the target’s head and it displayed the name first, underneath it the level and underneath that a red bar that had 100% on it. This was obviously the health bar.

The shopkeeper noticed that the youngster was looking at him, but after a look, he didn’t bother to say anything.

Arthur too back his task of searching for armor and finally found a leather vest on his size. Sadly the armor didn’t have much of a description.

Leather VestA vest made of leather for protection purposes

It wasn’t legendary gear, but it was enough. It cost him 3 copper, it seemed too much at first, but since he could make copper so easily, he didn’t bother to haggle.

With his preparations made, he went out to have his first hunt.