Walking through the cobblestone streets I could see so many different people. The majority of people I could see were humans with medieval clothing. The women were wearing dresses with thin waists and long skirts. The men were wearing medieval tunics and had swords by their sides. The city really gave off a Skyrim/Witcher feel with everyone rushing around getting on with their daily lives.
Having no idea where the adventurers guild would be I of course do the smart thing and asked one of the civilians. Spotting a woman sitting on a bench I start walking up to her. She looked to be in her 30’s and was wearing a blue dress. By her side was a basket full of groceries. In her hand was a fruit that resembled an apple and she was elegantly chomping away spectating the busy street.
“Greetings ma’am. Could you please tell me which direction the adventurer guild is.” Putting on my best smile I asked the woman politely.
“That way huge building can’t miss it.”
The woman simply looked at me a for second before speaking and pointing somewhere to my left.
Following the woman directions I headed deeper and deeper into the city. The amount of people only increased, but luckily the streets also grew wider. Looking around I couldn’t see any non humans. Mizuki had told me about the main races although she wouldn’t tell me anything about vampires. Apparently vampires look down on the other races giving them a cold heartless demeanour. Honestly she’s just being stubborn so I let it slide. The elves were a race that stuck to the forests and rarely accepted outsiders. Beastmen and humans shared a weird relationship which depended on the nation. Some nations were friendly and some were mortal enemies.
After walking aimlessly in one direction for a short while I finally felt like I was on the track. The area around me was being filled with more and more adventurers. Following the flow of crowds it didn’t take long for a huge building to come into my sights.
The building was shaped like a pentagon and was made from stone and marble. I don’t know shit about architecture but I had to admit this place was stunning.
Seeing the main doors wide open I quickly made my way inside. The inside was just as impressive as the outside. The ceiling was really high and had a huge painting of a dragon. The room itself was split into two halves. On one side there were many receptionists handling adventurers and on the other a restaurant. I couldn’t help but stare around the place like country bumpkin.
As soon as I walked in could feel a number of people looking my way and I did the best I could to ignore them. After gawking around for a few minutes I ended up joining one of the shorter lines.
Surprisingly the customer service was pretty good and all the receptionists male and female were very efficient. They were friendly and quick when dealing with adventurers. I also saw a few newbies like me asking to join the guild.
Just like I believed this place was called the adventurers guild however it was split up into two main sections. The first being the monster hunters the second being mercenary’s.
The person standing in front of me coincidently also happened to be signing up as an adventurer. Listening to the conversation the boy was having with the female receptionist I picked up on a lot of information. Firstly solo adventuring was not supported by the guild. Apparently a lot of people overestimate themselves and get themselves killed. If you wanted to be an adventurer joining a party of at least 3 was a must.
I could see the reasons why the adventurers guild would want this. Firstly like they said with parties being compulsory less adventurers die pointless deaths. Next a team of adventurers is definitely better than one person unless they’re a prodigy of prodigies. Lastly there was also the fact that magicians were rather rare. It wasn’t something crazy like one person in a million, but because of there smaller numbers the guild gave mages better treatment.
Firstly if you had magic potential and didn’t know how to use it you would be sent to a magic academy. The Academy catered to all ages from the kids to adults. I’m guessing there’s an age limit probably in the late twenties. The only catch was that after studying you would have to work for the guild for a set period of time and a small amount of your earnings would be taken by the guild. This way commoners and nobles all could join the academy.
With all the monster cores In my possession I don’t really have to worry about being in debt so working after going to the academy won’t be a problem.
The receptionist then lead the boy to one of the rooms in the back probably to check if he had any magic affinities.
< Yuki will you be alright? > Mizuki asked out of nowhere.
“Eh why would you ask that?” I whispered. Thankfully the drunk adventurers were drowning out a lot of noise so no one could hear me whispering to myself.
< Are you okay with them seeing all of your affinities? Even I only have 80% in lightning you know. I don’t want these greedy people to use as a tool. >
“Fufu don’t worry about it. If they try anything suspicious I’m sure together we can bust out if this place. Plus I have no idea how to hide affinities so there’s no point worrying about something we have no control over and wouldn’t they want me on their side?”
< You underestimate their greed. Thankfully were not dealing with the despicable creatures known as nobles, but you shouldn’t let your guard down.” >
Taking Mizuki’s warning to heart I remind myself this isn’t Earth. There’s no such thing as human rights here. I’m sure many nobles from this kingdom are corrupt. Even on Earth their were corrupt politicians this place should be much worse. If you kill someone here and burn their body who’s gunna bring you to justice? If someone drugs you and violates you who’s gunna come to your rescue? The police? There no such thing as police. The guards in the city mainly patrol the wealthy areas and who’s to say the guards themselves aren’t corrupt. They wouldn’t go out of their way to bring a murderer or a rapist to justice. Things like this probably occur a lot especially in such an old fashioned era and to make things worse people can use magic to hide evidence making escaping a crime way to easy.
Well it’s not completely as bad as I’m imagining. There was that crystal ball at the gates that checked if someone was a criminal or not so hopefully there are other measures in place to keep criminal activity low. I mean the streets I walked through earlier today didn’t look like they belonged to a kingdom full of savages.
Taking a deep breath I approach the receptionist who’s now returned to her post. She was way taller than me probably around 6’5 however my chest was bigger. Is that a good thing I don’t even know anymore.
“Hi there, welcome to the adventurers guild. How may I help you today?” The woman’s business smile was on point along with her manners and enthusiasm.
With the boy before it felt like she was reading of a script. Seeing that she was so energetic Kinda threw me off.
“I’d like to sign up as adventurer please.” I was kinda nervous did she think I was already an adventurer because of my equipment? Is her attitude about to do a 180?
My words clearly shocked her a bit and I could see her slyly scanning my equipment. Is she checking out my breasts?
“I’ve already hunted monsters before but I just wasn’t registered to the guild.” I couldn’t help but smile awkwardly.
“Ooh! So you already know how to fight monsters. Did you subjugate monsters in your village?! I totally understand fighting for your life protecting the people you love! This is why I love adventurers!” Her face went through so many different emotions. First was the look of realisation then she went off on a tangent of how amazing adventurers were. Does she have an fetish for adventurers or something? Additionally her face was totally creeping me out why is she like this with me? Why were you so normal with that boy before?
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“May I know your name my lady.” She said finally after finishing her mini tangent.
“Yuki” I replied with a huge sigh. I was trying my best not to show how dead I felt on the inside. What were the chances of me picking this receptionist.
“Yuki. Yuki huh. What a cute name! I’ve never heard of it before. Your village must be really far away. If you ever need something come straight to me! This older sister is definitely reliable!” Seeing her pound her chest and give a goofy smile I couldn’t help but think something was wrong with this woman!
Village what village? Also where did older sister come from!? How can you just claim something like that out of nowhere? We’ve barely spoken to each other and I’ve already jumped into the sister zone. I don’t even know whats happening anymore.
With that said she proceeded to tell me the same information she told the boy before. After that she enthusiastically dragged me to the back room. The room we entered was small and in the middle was a crystal ball sat on the table just like the one at the city gate. The only difference was that this one had some type of engravings/markings shining on the top.
I didn’t know what to expect at this point would she see my whole status stats and everything? Would she only see my affinities and if so which ones? Would it only be the basic fire, air, earth and water or would it show all the special ones too. Whatever the future held I was ready to freeze time and create a gate immediately if things went south.
“Yuki-chan you said you used to hunt monsters before? Have you ever used magic before?”
What is it with woman and why is she being so friendly?
“Just a bit.”
Giving her a vague answer I simply carried on ahead.
Approaching the crystal I slowly placed my hand on top of it. I could feel the cold slippery surface take a minuscule amount of my mana.
The crystal started to give off light. First the light was dim but it was getting brighter by the second. A few seconds later and the crystal was too bright to look at.
“That’s enough Yuki-chan please remove your hand now.” Although she was laughing nervously I couldn’t help but see that her eyes were shining.
Taking my hand off the crystal ball the lighting in the room returned back to normal. The receptionist who’s name I still don’t know went ahead and asked me to sit down. Mizuki was still glued to my head. I’m pretty sure that even if I was upside down this Wolf would still be attached to my head.
“Yuki-chan since you clearly have magic potential I would like to ask you on behalf of the guild to join the magic academy. Not only will you be taught how to improve your skills in magic you can also choose to train in the martial arts too. So what do you say? Are you interested?”
I can’t say that I’m not interested after all this would be a good opportunity to learn more magic. I’m interested in my affinity with darkness too. Hopefully it’s not something taboo or forbidden. If it turns out to be something like necromancy I’m going to be super disappointed. As a hygiene freak having an army of rotten corpses would drive me insane.
“Unfortunately since the academic year is almost over you would not be able to start straightaway instead you will start in a few months. The academy also gives students their own dorms so you don’t have to worry about any living expenses. You also don’t have to worry about discrimination every race is accepted with open arms.” The receptionist was trying her best to lure in this promising girl. If she was the one who scouted Yuki not only would she get promoted she would also turn into Yuki’s personal receptionist! She had to do her best!
After a moment of pondering I couldn’t think of a reason to refuse. As for Mizuki I could take her silence as confirmation.
Even though the both of us are connected to feel her emotions is a difficult task for me. I have to concentrate really hard just for a glimpse. I have a feeling this probably has something to do with the power gap up between us.
Even with the ability to freeze time I can’t see myself beating Mizuki in a serious fight. Her cub form isn’t made for combat. Beating her humanoid form is like 50/50. Her true form I honestly can’t see a way of winning without killing myself in the process.
Although lightning technically isn’t as fast as the speed of light when you throw magic into the mix anything is possible. Mizuki the master of lightning has achieved this. Moving as fast as light itself she can easily escape my measly 500ft limit of time freezing before I could even react. Even with warp gates and enhanced speeds I’m just a sitting duck for her. The only actual way I can see myself defeating her is with the use of a black hole, but that itself is courting death.
My knowledge on blackholes isn’t that amazing in the first place. I do know that they are formed after supernovas which is when a huge star collapses on itself. I also know that blackholes have an extremely strong gravitational pull which affects light itself.
Now here’s the problem. If light itself can’t escape a blackhole then how the fuck do I escape. Not only that how do you stop a blackhole? I swear I feel like the laws of physics mean fuck all in this world. Everything can be manipulated from gravity to time so I’m sure there’s a way to tame something like a blackhole but currently it’s impossible for me. I don’t even want to try it.
Also let’s say for hypothetical reasons that I do manage to freeze time with Mizuki inside. As embarrassing as this sounds I don’t actually have a way to hurt her. Her fur maybe soft and silky but cutting it with a sword just isn’t possible. Destroying her eyes and digging my way to her brain isn’t possible either. Her eyes are probably harder than any metal I’ve ever seen.
Remembering the fact that Mizuki was actually injured when I first met her gives me the chills. What the fuck was she fighting! She said it was a dragon but I just can’t imagine it.
Just imagining myself fighting Mizuki in a death match has actually given me a lot of ideas to try. Firstly instead of relying on something uncontrollable like a blackhole what if I could manipulate gravity myself. I mean surely gravity falls under the space affinity. If I can’t cut Mizuki with a sword then what if i expand or compress space itself. Expanding or compressing the very atoms that make up Mizuki and blowing her up or crushing her into a ball is a plan ten times better than summoning a blackhole that could potentially end up destroying the galaxy.
Fufufu I’m a genius!
< Yuki your wearing a perverted smile while staring at a woman who’s already infatuated with you. Are you trying to turn her into a stalker?”
“Eh?”
Looking up I see the receptionist girl who’s name I still don’t know blushing like an idiot. Oyoyoyoy what’s going on here! Miss receptionist just what on earth are you imagining?!
“Ahem. About the magic academy. I’d like to accept the offer. I also have some magic crystals I’d like to sell.” The atmosphere was beyond saving. With everything being so awkward I thought It would be best to leave immediately.
Hastily standing up I make my way to the door.
“Wait!”
Turning around I look at the receptionist. Her brown hair was tied up in a pony tail Her eyes were matching almond brown and were sparkling with determination.
“Actually handling magic crystals is part of my job and didn’t I tell you that you can r-rely on me!” Watching her gathering her confidence and thumping her chest was kinda funny.
“Very well but Ms receptionist you still haven’t introduced yourself you know.”
Her eyes went wide as she came to the same realisation.
“ahaha, ahahaha my name is Mia.” She said quickly pushing me out the door whilst trying to hide her embarrassment.
Taking a few turns we were back at the main hall. I could see that the desk that Mia managed had been taken over by someone else.
Following the woman through the busy guild I could see that Mia turned quite a few heads, however no one dared to approach. In fact every time I looked at some one they would instantly look away. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t expect some sort of cliché event to happen, but this was super weird. It’s like being the centre of attention but at the same time your not.
Arriving at another desk I pulled out a crystals from my pocket. I have no idea what the monster ranking are so I chose a monster that wasn’t too hard to defeat. The crystal I brought out was glowing bright green and looked a lot like kryptonite.
Taking the crystal Mia didn’t waste anytime and started to appraise it. A couple of moments passed and the appraisal was complete.
“Congratulations Yuki-chan for defeating a C rank earth basilisk I’m sure it was tough fight! Not only that this crystal is in pristine condition.”
As Mia congratulated me she securely put the crystal behind the desk and proceeded to hand me small bag of coins. The bag of coins jingled as they entered my hands. From the weight I could feel that there was quite a few coins inside.
“12 gold coins and a guild card. Please don’t lose the card as you will be fined for a replacement. Also the information on the card can only be accessed by yourself and those you trust. As a staff member of the guild I have basic access to your information. Just your basic information and how many quests you’ve failed or succeeded in.”
Opening the bag I see coins the same size as they were on earth. The only difference was that these coins didn’t have patterns on them. Instead the coins had the words golden coin engraved onto them. Next I see the card. It was made from metal making it quite tough.
Seeing how I was inspecting the coins and the card Mia once again concluded her theory of my origins. Since villages were remote places gold coins weren’t used.
“Yuki-chan this is a gold coin you can see their legitimacy with the engravings on the sides. Gold coins are worth 100 silvers just like how 100 bronze coins make 1 silver coin. Also with the guild card since you can use magic I gave you special version. To access the card just pour in a small amount of your mana.”
Understanding everything it was finally time to leave. My stomach was going to blow up if I didn’t eat any normal food soon. I would ask Mia for a restaurant recommendation but I feel like she would abandon her work and join me.
Sliding the coins and my card stealthily into my inventory I say my goodbyes to Mia and quickly leave the guild.
TIME TO EAT!