"This town is seriously called Bright Hill? What is the deal with these town names?" Blake said.

"You're the only one who thinks they're weird," Riley said.

"Fine, whatever. This town has a guild, right? The last one didn't."

"Yeah, it should."

"I used to live here... As a Companion..." Nash said, timid.

"Oh, you did?" Riley said.

"Yeah. It's changed a lot, though. I don't think anyone would remember me..." he said.

"Well, just one more stop on the way to Queensland, right?" she said.

Blake shook his head.

"It's gonna be a while. We're running out of money and supplies. Man, those thugs did me good. I'm such a moron! I really should've went back to the inn and taken the betting pool. Oh well. We need to enough money to restock on supplies before we head out again," Blake said.

"How long will it take?" Nash asked.

"I have no idea, it depends on how the guild works."

They set up the carriage at an inn and started looking around for the guild. It was fairly easy to find, centered on one of the main roads through town. Not the one they came in on, though.

"International Adventurer's Guild, Bright Hill Chapter, huh. Let's go inside."

As they did. A good dozen awkward gazes watched them as they came in. It was strange, the other adventurers there thought, seeing a fully-grown man drag two children into the guild, one clearly a Companion. This sort of thing usually only happened when a local noble or business person died and whoever was named in their will didn't want to deal with their slaves.

"Blake Jackson, looking to sign up as an adventurer."

"Just one moment, please. Will these two be signing up?"

"No? I don't think so? Can slaves be adventurers?"

"The Companion? Well, not as such, but it's common for owners to brings them on as scouts. If you're interested, then—"

"No thanks. I'm not a fan of this situation I've got going on with these two, they just ended up with me. Things happened."

"But even so—"

"I'm just here to make money, I don't want to force anything on them."

"Very well. Before you register, you must hear our welcoming statement. It is not optional."

"Okay, sure, get it over with."

"The International Adventurer's Guild is, as per the name, a stateless organization dedicated to organizing, guiding, and providing a legal framework for the adventurers of all lands. By joining us, you're becoming part of a movement that keeps the roads, fields, forests, and mountains free of monsters and bandits, and helping do your part to make the world a better place. All of our members are equally valuable, and we treasure each and every one of you. Demons and former outlaws welcome! We will not help hide you from the law, however, if you are wanted."

"The demon bit is outdated, don't you think?" Riley said.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"We've been trying to change it for years, but the guild heads are being stubborn about it. Tradition, they say." She turned back to Blake. "Alright, Blake, if you're ready to join, then please place your off-hand on the table."

"Sure thing. So what do I need to do, fill out some paperwork? Do a test? An exam? Combat?—Ouch, that hurts! What the hell!"

"Registration complete! Welcome aboard, Rank E adventurer Blake Jackson!"

He looked at his off-hand, where he saw a brassy-looking bracelet that wasn't there before, with a small red crystal. Apparently that's all the registration took, putting this thing on him.

"So..."

"It's already scanned your status, synchronized it with our database, and granted your starting rank accordingly. Nothing to worry about, easy as pie!"

The clerk adjusted her glasses and smiled, smug.

"What's this made out of, anyway?"

"A copper-based alloy and denatured Netherite. Don't worry, it can't hold a charge, it's only used for fingerprinting."

"If you say so. So how do I make money? Quests? Requests? Jobs?"

"The job board is right over there." She pointed. "Keep in mind that Rank E adventurers can only take jobs marked as 'basic'. Rank D and up, however, and you can partake in anything, at your own risk. Ranks C and up measure renown more than combat skill, hence D being the cutoff point."

"Wait. What's the point of the ranking system if it's not about combat skill? And if you don't keep people from taking any jobs?"

"This is what the guildmaster told us he was taught by the Central Guild overseas. This system makes it harder for adventurers to lie about their seniority, which is important if you ever need to assemble a temporary party to take on a job with a lot of money on the line. If skill mattered too much in taking on jobs, then large, well-organized parties wouldn't be able to take on jobs that smaller, less effective parties would be able to, if the smaller party was made up of strong individuals. We can't pool individual skill together when deciding if a party can take a job, either, because it would encourage deceptive behavior. For example, signing up for a job a friend is taking either if you're not going with them."

"So... What do you do instead? Isn't it kind of dangerous to let anyone do whatever they want? Like, a prodigy could go run up against... Are there dragons here? Whatever your version of dragons is."

"For standard jobs, we're trained to size up adventurers and use their rank as a heuristic and steer them, without preventing them from doing anything that they have autonomously chosen to do. Of course, we can still prevent someone from taking a job if there's some other problem, like a conflict of interest or if they're likely to get countless other people killed. A teenage prodigy going after a... Dragon, you said? Would be a deathwish, so we would try very, very hard to discourage it, and perhaps even apply arbitrary job-specific requirements, like passing a bestiary exam."

"I... See... Well, might as well see what jobs there are."

The job board was a nice big green bulletin board, oval-shaped, with flier after flier pinned to it. Almost every single one was written by a different contributor, and not all were actual jobs, just advertisements for adventurer-related events. Jobs were loosely organized horizontally by required rank and vertically by type, though it was chaotic and there weren't any borders.

"So... Oh no all the 'basic' jobs are trash."

Collecting herbs and mushrooms, hunting low-level monsters, cleaning up Bright Hill, doing chores, tutoring, acting as sparring partners for the guards... All low-impact work with low pay, or work that's basically charity. Either way, no good money.

"Ah. Wait, no, that doesn't matter. Unless there's a good job buried in here I'm not going to be able to make any real money. That's a problem."

He kept looking.

"No... Argh, there's nothing. There are some good party jobs, but I'm not going to risk partying up with other people when I still have you two to worry about."

"That sucks," Nash said.

The clerk came over. She could tell Blake was troubled.

"Are the Rank E jobs not to your satisfaction?"

"No, not really."

"You're only a single level away from Rank D."

Blake turned to her.

"How do I level up? And how do I know if I level up?"

"Well, your status says you're level four right now. At such a low level, you can level up in the safety of the library. You should be able to get the experience you need simply learning new spells and combat tactics, or brushing up on the bestiary. You can check your level by invoking your status panel."

"Just by reading? For real?"

"Yes. Your level reflects your abilities, after all, not the other way around. By the way, even if you don't register these two as scouts, it may still be valuable for them to get proper training. They could save you out there, after all, once you start doing real jobs."

He looked over at Nash and Riley, then back at the clerk.

"I don't think the girl needs any training. She'd probably beat me in a fair fight. The boy could probably use some work though. Hey, Nash, what's your class again?"

"Medic," he said.

"Seriously? You don't look it..."

Nash shrank.

"Sorry, I don't mean anything by it. Okay, that sounds like a plan. The library's over there, right?"

"Yes. Take care!"

"Thanks for the help."