Still a little drowsy, I slowly followed behind as we went up an extremely creaky staircase. I could tell we were almost to the top when I was able to finally see natural light once again. Emerging from the basement hospital, I saw the glory of the guild, or what I had thought my whole life would have been a glorious place.
The second floor balconies looked like they were about to fall off and there were dozens of what I assumed to be fellow Paladins, running around drunk. Looking towards the service desks, that were extremely old, there were only three total secretaries manning them.
“Hey Lena, what happened to this place?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Well over the past decade the quality of the Paladins has gone down hill, and the state of the guild along with it, especially after a certain incident happened. As soon as they had given up hope and realized that they only had to be a member of a party for their contract to count, they all became lazy drunkards with side jobs. Because of this, the Empire slowly began to decrease the funding for our branch of the guild. No one sees the point of continuing this dangerous fight against the seemingly endless undead hordes.”
“Well that’s a nihilistic view. While I understand that the undead are nearly endless, if we didn’t continue the fight for all of these generations, we would have been overrun by now.” I remarked after observing the pathetic state of the guild.
“You know, I wish more would think like you, maybe you could bring change to this place.” Lena spoke in a regretful voice.
“I’m not sure that I could do it as one man.” I gave my honest opinion.
“Well I guess we’ll have to see, but for now we have some business to take care of. First let's have one of the lovely secretaries explain to you how it works around here, and then we can have you meet the girls.” Lena responded.
Walking over to the decrepit secretary desk, Lena began talking to the tired secretary in a friendly tone, “Hello Mary, it’s nice to see you again, could you explain to my young friend here on how the guild works?”
“Hmm? Oh my, Lena! It's been awhile and no problem, I love talking to the young ones before they lose their hope and become pathetic like these old asses that I have to deal with everyday.”
Mary turned her attention to me and began speaking, “Hello, so you’re Leone, the leader of the new Cat Dragons squad.”
“Yes, that is correct.” I replied.
“Well nice to meet you, let me explain the basics so you can get started with your work as a Paladin. A young one like yourself starts off at Recruit. As you destroy undead and complete missions, you will gain merit and be promoted through the ranks…” As Mary was talking to me, my attention drifted as I overheard Lena’s conversation with one of the other secretaries, who looked to be in his late fifties.
“Hey, Sam, do you know where the other four went?” Lena asked.
“Yes, they went over to Mr. Richard’s restaurant.” Sam spoke to Lena respectfully.
“I told them to stand by and wait for their new leader to wake up so they could greet him.” Lena sounded annoyed.
“Yes, I am aware, my Lady. I tried to warn them but they left regardless after saying they were bored of waiting.” Sam said as he bowed his head a bit.
His respectful and refined courtesy towards Lena made me curious about how they knew each other. Based on his demeanor alone, if I didn’t know any better, I would have suspected that Sam was some sort of servant of a high ranking noble.
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“Haaa… Those four… I told them to at least wait, because I knew exactly when Leone would wake up, yet they left regardless. Those girls really are impatient, why can’t they be more like Asayo?” Lena openly complained.
“...So after you reach the 9th rank of Grandmaster, there are some special classes that you can progress through. The first is the Knight class, which is earned through merit and mastery over your preferred weapon. The second is the Archivist class, earned by gathering immense and valuable knowledge pertaining to the undead. The third is the Sorcerer class, which can be earned through merit and the showing of superb ability in the magical arts. The fourth is the Archpaladin class, which can only be earned through merit and the mastery of both a preferred weapon and the magical arts. The final class that you can earn is the Ace, which is acquired through merit and mastery of a skill that is unique to you. We’ve only had five in the history of this guild’s branch, and along with earning the rank of Ace, it is customary for them to gain a unique title. In fact, two of the Aces are related to you—your father and grandfather. They were both excellent warriors in the glory days of our branch, Richard “The Death Hunter” Anlett, and Ezekiel “The Eagle Eye” Anlett.” Mary explained as my attention shifted back towards her.
“Who were the others?” I asked out of curiosity.
“The first was the glorious founder of our branch, Adam Enoch David “The Untouchable” Benel. He died soon after the founding of our guild, but those of us who work here still consider him one of our Aces.” Mary explained.
“As for the others…” Mary's voice trailed off with unknown emotion.
“Well, I guess it would be alright for me to say a little bit, it's not like it's a secret around here. One of the Aces was Claire “The Sword Saint” Solaris. She died too soon as well, but when she was still around, she was like a shining star. In fact, she was also in the same party as your father. Anyways, the final Ace… well… it's probably best we don’t talk about them…” As Mary was speaking, many things stood out to me such as the name Solaris, however, one thing piqued my interest the most.
“So you're telling me that I am a direct descendant of two of the Aces?” I asked.
Although I knew my dad was pretty powerful from the stories of his adventures he told, this was the first time I was hearing of this.
“Maybe that’s what the Necromancer meant about being the third generation.” I spoke quietly to myself.
“What was that?" Mary asked me.
“Nothing, you can continue on with your explanation of the guild.” I replied, as my thoughts began to wonder.
“So as you probably suspected, even though this is an obligation for the citizens of our fine Empire, you will still be compensated for your successful work. As you progress through the ranks, the compensation that you gain will increase along with the difficulty of the missions that you are given. Due to our lack of funding, the pay is not as high as it would be in other locations within the Empire. But who knows, maybe you’ll be able to turn that around one day.” Mary spoke with a tired smile.
“Why does everyone here seem to have so much faith in me?” I asked, noticing a recurring pattern.
“It's probably a false spark of hope, produced from the fact that you are the son and grandson of two of our guild branch's most powerful members.” Mary revealed honestly.
“Well Leone, are you ready to meet the rest of the squad?” Lena came walking back over to me.
“I sure am Lena, because the faster that we get introductions done, the faster I get to go see my parents before our first mission.” I replied.
“Well about that. Due to how long it took for you to wake up, I already have your first mission. And it is a bit urgent.” Mary spoke from behind me with an apologetic voice.
“Damn it, what do you have for us?” I winced.
“A Necromancer has been sighted near the city. They have begun to raise the entire catacomb, and now there's mass amounts of undead roaming the area. The situation is very dangerous for the public, so this mission is a high priority.” Mary read out the mission.
“Fine, we'll do it. But why are you giving us such a hard first mission?” I asked, feeling this was a bit much.
“If you haven’t noticed, none of these lazy asses are going to do it, and the only other active parties are already on missions.” Mary scowled, taking a look at the pathetic Paladins.
“Whatever.” I shrugged in response.
Mary handed me a scroll containing the details of the mission. Stamped on the top was a large B, while below was a basic description with all relevant information. Looking at the payout, I was pleasantly surprised. 7,000 gold was just about the right price for a finely crafted bow.
“Well Lena, I guess it's about time for me to meet the rest of the squad, so that we can get this adventure started.” I spoke, as I turned towards the Dragon.