*Evan POV*
“This is going to be a long day.” I mumbled to myself as I left the Inn. Now then, what should I do now? I had 2 gold coins and 39 silver.
{Author note: For those who don’t know,
1 platinum coin = 100 gold coins.
1 gold coin = 100 silver coins.
1 silver = 100 copper coins.}
I can go to the library now or just explore around. Honestly, I have no idea what’s going on in this place, some guys don’t like me for no reason and some are curious as to why a lone Silver Daemon is visiting their place.
Let’s take a look at what’s my goal right now, I need to go to the Library and that will maybe help me find some answers as to why I’m here. Doubtful that I’ll find anything, but better than nothing. I also need equipment, no way in hell am I showing everyone that I use a Zombie's Arm as my main melee weapon. Nobody’s going to talk to me after something goes south and I have to use a melee weapon.
So, for now, I can only use this large wooden sword I have as a melee weapon. And lastly, It would be much better for me to just leave this place. No way for me to find trouble here if I’m not even here.
I started walking with no destination in mind for a second until I saw a man in iron armor walk past me. Which made me think, the guards here all use silver armor, so why is this guy here walking around in Iron armor? Actually, now that I look around, I see a couple of people walking in different kinds of armor.
Are they like… Players? Also stuck in here like me?
“Excuse me! The guy in the iron armor!” I shouted.
He was a bit surprised and looked back at me cautiously as I continued, “Ok, I just have a few questions. Are you a player?”
He tilted his head slightly in confusion, “What’s a Player?” Responding to my question.
Ok, that means he’s not one.
“Ah, never mind then, anyway, you see, I'm kind of new to this kingdom and I just wanted to know if there is a place where I can buy armor like you?” I asked.
As long as I have armor, I won’t mind having bad weapons. He inspected me for a second before he pointed in the road ahead. “Ah, you can get all kinds of armor and weaponry from the Adventurers’ Guild ahead.” He said.
Adventurers’ Guild?
Hmmmm… Let’s hope it’s not the place I’m thinking of.
[Okay, thanks for the info!] I thanked him and with the new info and hurried my way to the Adventurers’ Guild. Looks like my first destination is going to be that.
I made a brisk walk forward, dodging pedestrians and enjoying the view, It still took a couple minutes of walking until I could finally see my destination.
I saw a giant building, well compared to the other buildings it was giant. It had 5 floors and was made of wood and bricks. It looked to be painted in white colour and there was also a 3-floor tall building right beside it which was also made of wood and bricks but coloured yellow. The 3 stories tall building had a sign with a sword and shield drawn on it and the 5 stories tall building had a picture of a stack of books on its sign.
I'm going to bet the sword and shield means the Adventurers’ Guild.
I went inside and it was quite empty. There was a board pinned with papers on one side of the wall to my right and stairs leading up and down to the basement in another corner on the left. There is also a counter in the middle which was occupied by a single woman in her 20's.
Let's see, big breasts, red hair that was up till her shoulder, A mature face with sharp eyes, she looks like she's been through countless battles. She wore a blue uniform and she also had 2 small black horns poking out from on top of her forehead with Amber coloured eyes which complemented her tan skin.
She looked at me and smiled a little bit which instantly got rid of the “Don't talk to me” atmosphere she had held up.
“Welcome to the Adventurers’ Guild. It's rare to see a Demi-human like you around here”, She quickly greeted me, she’s a demi-human too right?
“Hello!”, greeting her before I walked up to the counter and went straight for the bullet. “So, I wanted to know what the adventurer guild actually is?”
She looked at me confused and asked in return. “Have you been living under a rock?”, She stared incredulously. Should’ve known she would think that.
“Well, yea, something like that…”, I replied while shamefully hanging my head. I tried to defend myself. Hopefully I didn’t look too weird. Her confused look changed to a more understanding one.
“Ah, I got it, you might have confused it with the other branches.” She said with a gesture like she was understanding something.
There’re other branches? What do you mean by that?
“Let’s just assume that is the case.”
She nodded understandingly. “Then let me explain. The Guild was made to help a country, kingdom or village with any problem it or the people residing within may face, the problems that slowly came forward was that too many different guild branches were made, the merchant guild, trade guild, mining guild and the hunter guild are a few examples.], she explained what the Guild did.
Ok so this guild thingy isn’t what I was thinking of earlier and honestly, I’m really thankful for that.
She continued, “The solution for many guild branches was to make a hybrid guild which would do all the things of all other guild, Is what I would like to say, but we’re just a medium. All the requests of all other guilds are transferred from here to other, so we’re basically a third party who work as a medium for the other branches.”
She then pointed towards the board on the side that had some papers pinned to it and explained further, “So, what happens when one kingdom needs a mining job but doesn’t have the aforementioned guild build there? We come in. The job is posted here and we relay the information to the nearest guild in another kingdom. When the job is done, the guild in the other kingdom does all the paper work and relays it back through here.”
That makes a lot of sense.
“Can anyone do the missions here?” I inquired.
“Only if you're an adventurer.”
“How do I become one?”
“You have to pass a test. Which will be conducted by any veteran adventure of this guild. If the veteran judge that you’re worthy enough to fend for yourself in any kind of danger, then you can register as an adventurer. For taking on tasks of different guilds that may be posted here. As long as you know how to do them, and with the permission of the veteran adventure I mentioned before, you can take them.”
I’m sooo thankful this place isn’t what I was thinking about earlier.
“Alrighty then, when can I start?” I said, pumped up.
“Please wait here for a moment.”, She said kindly before walking upstairs.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
It was quiet for a second or two until I heard the Lady with horn screaming from upstairs. “HEY LARK QUIT YER DRINKEN ALREADY! THERE'S A NEW SPAR FOR YA DOWNSTAIRS!”
“YOU DON’T HAVE TO SCREAM OK! IM COMING!! JUST GIVE ME A MIN!” Lark returning the shout, sounding like a tough man.
Well, I guess she's more than what meets the eye.
The woman came back downstairs in an elegant way and smiled at me.
“Our veteran Lark will be conducting your exam. Please follow me to the arena.” She said as she started heading downstairs as I followed her.
The first that greeted me was a wide-open area before I figured it was the arena the Lady talked about.
The arena was very open and had a circular formation in middle. Around 20 meters of radius and the roof was around 5 meters high. She then pointed towards a weapons and armor rack at the edge of the arena and then said
“Please choose any sparring gear and prepare yourself.”, Gesturing to the armoury.
The sparring weapon and armor she was talking about were wooden swords with different modifiers and wooden armor.
There were also some wooden bows with wooden arrows whose tips were blunt along with that, there was also some number of wands of sparking.
I can only use one weapon huh. I don’t know if they’ll allow it but I want to use the wooden sword I have since it has the Legendary modifier.
I went to the rack with wooden swords, put myself in between the lady and the wooden swords rack and then Secretly pulled out my own wooden sword from my inventory. “I choose this one!”
I looked towards the lady while worried if she found me out but it looks like I’m safe. She smiled and nodded before slowly going back upstairs.
“Please quickly wear some armor and wait for Lark to take your examination. I will be upstairs if you need me.”,
“Alright!” I said with enthusiasm as she went off to get Lark.
This makes me think though. Can the people of this place not use inventory or have the system? Or is that something specific only I have? I wonder if its because of the fact I’m not of this world or the fact that I’m technically a hero of some kind.
I quickly went over to the armor rack and wore the wooden set through the use of inventory.
Hard wood came on top of my body, and while it looks durable, a stab from a metal knife looks like it would easily penetrate my defence, I don’t really like the wooden helmet so I put my goggles in my social slot make the wooden helmet become invisible.
Wooden helmet: 1 defence
Wooden breastplate: 1 defence
Wooden pants: 0 defence
Set bonus: 1 defence
Since I had the guarding shackle equipped, I had a total of 6 defence points, which isn’t good but not bad either.
Just then the counter lady with the horns came downstairs with a guy. The guy looked to be in his 30s, black messy short hair with a stubble beard, brown eyes reeked of alcohol and a chiselled jaw. He had such a face that you could not take him seriously no matter what happened. He had bulging muscles, tanned skin and looked a bit taller than me, around 6'3 I guess.
“A Demi-human huh? So that's why I heard our ice princess talking in such a gentle voice. The name's Lark by the way.” Said the guy as the Lady quickly responded.
“Lark, I'm going to remind you again if you hurt him in any way then prepare for the consequences.”
Oh damn. I blushed a little. I didn’t know the lady was had a crush on me.
“I know, I know I won't deal a huge blow accidently like what happened last time, I'll take care of our little rookie.” He retorted.
Ok, scratch that, the lady wasn't even talking about me. She turned towards me and started speaking gently again. “Alright then, I had forgotten to ask you your name.”
“Evan. My name's Evan Langford”
“Alright Evan, I'll see you later.” She nodded and went back upstairs.
“Sheesh. I swear that girl's only friendly with demi-humans.” He walked up to the training gear rack and started wearing the wooden armor like it was his second nature before taking out a long wooden sword which was still smaller than mine.
“Alright rookie let's get this over with quickly. I don't like having my drinking time disturbed.” He said before walking up to the middle of the arena. “Okay Rookie! Show me what you got! Hit me as hard as you can.”
I nodded as I whipped out my wooden sword that I was hiding behind my back. He was surprised as he said in fear, “Woah Woah! Hold on a second! Isn't that sword way too damn big!?”
“Hm? The Lady said it was fine.” I responded, hiding my grin.
He clicked his tongue, “Tch, Of course, she did.”
I used the thrust skill which made me bolt forward with great momentum before I thrust my sword into his stomach.
-13
“OOF!”
It seems like I knocked the air out of him since he was knocked back a couple of steps as before he immediately held his stomach in pain.
“Ouch rookie! I haven’t said go yet ya bastard!”
“But you were the one who told me to do my best. Or are you actually just weak?” Trash talking was in my blood, I couldn’t resist it.
“Ohhh ho ho! So that's how you wanna play huh! I did promise that I won't hurt ya. But no one goes through a little spar with no Injuries.”
He charged towards me as I braced myself for the impact. Time seemed to have slowed down a little bit due to my Reflex skill as I saw him slashing at me in an ark.
I immediately used parry and successfully blocked the strike, his wooden sword bounced back a bit as he clearly didn't expect me to block his attack so before he regained his balance, I quickly used Counter which made me swung my sword down diagonally.
-16
I'll assume he has 100 hp like me so I didn't give him a chance and used High rise.
-12
BAM! He was launched back and the impact seemed to have hit him hard since his body rolled around like a ragdoll when he landed. He coughed a bit as blood started coming out of his mouth.
“A-Alright, you win rookie or, Evan was it?” He coughed out a bit more blood, “Damn! If you hadn’t hit me with that surprise attack at the beginning then this spar would’ve ended differently, regardless I've never seen those moves before from a rookie so you did surprised me.”
“Well That was easy.”
“Hey, you only won because I was going a bit easy on ya. Never underestimate your opponent Evan.”
I nodded and saw him having trouble standing up so I helped him up. I tried to hand him one of the lesser healing potion I had and he got mad.
“Wait, are you serious? These shouldn't be used like this!”,
That caught me off guard. It’s just a healing potion is it not? I thought to myself before asking him.
“Huh? Why not?”
He shook his head, “Listen here rookie, I don't know where you're from. But here those potions are very hard to get. So, use them only when needed. Not like now. These injuries will heal on their own.”
…Seriously?
“But thanks, man. I appreciate it.”
I hid the potion behind my back before putting it in my inventory, “I see, well, No problem Lark.”
We both returned the armor before going back upstairs to find the red-haired woman.
“Welcome back.” She said with a smile as she quickly inspected me, “Looks like the sparing went well.”
“Hey! Show some concern for me too Liza!”
Liza huh? A nice name.
“I don't need to show concern for a trash who spends all his time drinking away.” She said condescendingly.
Lark looked shocked with a broken heart. But he didn’t refute it. Looks like Liza was not lying. “So, how'd it go?”
I pointed at Lark, “Well he said that I won.”
“Yea… he’s good.” Lark added on,
Lark was sulking that he still hasn’t recovered yet. Watching this, Liza continued, “Well I'm happy for you Evan. Do you want to get started on your jobs right now?”
Jobs huh, I am a little excited so I might as well look at them. “I’ll just take a look for now.” I was going to walk over to the Jobs board but Lark suddenly started talking.
“Well I'm going back upstairs to drink. If you’re going to accept a job then be sure to get some good gear from the armoury upstairs. You look like you got the coin for that.”
Oh yea! The armoury! I completely forgot about it.
I turned to lark and quickly asked him, “Ohhh, I needed better armor and I have the coin as well.”
“Hmm?” Lark said after quickly inspecting me after I said that, “Oh yeah, you definitely need new armor. That old cloth won't protect you from the monsters bash'en. Come on, I'll walk you up to Arnold he's a great blacksmith.”
“Nice, Thanks Lark.”
He waved his hand as a response as I followed him upstairs.
“The second floor is where you can find food, water, and other necessities. Adventurers get a discount that increases depending on how useful you are to the guild.”
It looked like a cafeteria with tons of wooden chairs and tables everywhere aside from a big counter looked after by some dude. We walked upstairs a bit more and reached the 3rd floor
“And here we are.” The place is quite small with some windows on the wall and a counter. Behind it, there was a very small old man who was as tall as my waist, He was bald and had a huge brown beard. His eyes were closed so I thought he was contemplating something, but now that I look at him, he’s probably just sleeping.
“HEY ARNOLD! I got a new patron for ya.” Lark screamed at the small old man.
He jolted up and was visually annoyed after looking at Lark. “Oh, it's just you Lark. Wot can I do to be of servise to ya.”
I don't know if he has trouble speaking or just speaks like that. I looked at Arnold and he understood immediately what I was going to ask.
“Don’t look at me like that, Arnold was hurt in a mining expedition, his throat was almost cut out, but thankfully he didn’t die, his speaking however, did took a hit.”
He then looked towards Arnold the blacksmith. “Just gear up this rookie over here. I'm going downstairs for a drink. Take care of yourself rookie.”
I waved Lark goodbye before I turned towards Arnold and he started talking, “So waht can I get ya rooke?”
“What do you have?”
“Frem cupper to platinem. Ya name it and I gut it.”
I raised an eyebrow. I wonder if he would have guns like the musket which one of the guards outside on the wall had. It’s weird somebody already has a musket since they pop out from a demon orb after you break them, but meh, they might have found a way to just make them or something.
“Then do you have magic weapons or guns?”
“I Shure do hav'em.”
He has Guns!? Oh, hell yea! Now we're talking!
It was the first time in this hell hole that I finally got excited. Terraria’s whole progression system is about equipment and items. Which means that the better items you have, the bigger level you are.
In simpler terms, what I mean is that I’m going to level myself up with money.