He woke up in a rough bed, well it was still better than the one he was using at his old hut in the forest. He got this room yesterday from the barman – Bald Joe, as it turned out he was Ralph's brother. And yeah, he had no idea why people called him bald even though he sure as hell had hair, it was even well maintained, for a barman at the end of the world. Of course judging from a few strange sneers he heard when barman introduced himself, Mark didn't really want to know why they called him that.
He stood up stretched and looked out the only window in his room. He was on the second floor so he could see the roofs of most of the buildings around here. It was really early in the morning and there weren't that many people walking around, only some women going to the river that went through the town with wooden buckets filled with clothes chatting animatedly.
Not one to dally he went to the garden behind the inn and washed himself next to a well, then put on some clothes and went in search of the local blacksmith. From Bald Joe he knew that the blacksmith Barry was two streets further down the main road. Indeed after a brief walk he could already hear the sounds of metal clanking against metal.
Going by the sound he arrived before a rather large building built mostly out of stone, with a couple wooden logs here and there. Without any hesitation he strode in. Inside it was pretty much the most generic smithy he has ever seen, piles of materials lying orderly along the wall to the right, dozens of different tools hanging on the walls together with some swords, daggers and a couple of spears bundled together in the corner. Further up ahead was a big blacksmith furnace, a big anvil, smaller anvil, and a tall tube filled with some liquid, probably oil, with a step next to it.
The clanking sounds heard from outside were coming from a two meter tall bear hitting a glowing red bar of iron on the big anvil. When Mark entered, the bear didn't even look up and only said with a gruff voice:
"Wacha looking for boy?"
When Mark looked at the bear more attentively he realized that it actually was just a incredulously hairy man. Without hesitating anymore Mark walked a little closer and said.
"I would like to get a new dagger, what are the costs? Oh, and will you buy this spear from me?"
The blacksmith finally spared Mark a single glance, and then instantly went back to his work.
"10 copper for the spear, the shaft is still usable but the spearhead is only for smelting down for some forks."
"And for the dagger?"
"The cheapest Iron Dagger costs 50 copper. Go look at the wall, and stop pestering me until you choose something. The weapons have price tags on them."
"Sure"
Mark walked up to the wall and found a small section allocated to daggers, and started looking around. At the bottom were a couple daggers similar to his one, but in a much better condition, priced at 50 copper each. Above them there were three daggers made out of hardened iron, they were visibly of a much better quality than the ones below priced at one silver each. Above them were daggers made out of steel ranging from 10 to 80 silver coins. He grabbed the simplest iron dagger at the bottom and went to the blacksmith.
"Leave 40 copper and the spear on the shelf over there, and go."
"Ok, is there an Adventure Association Guild here somewhere?"
"Dammit, why ask boy, you are on the main street, go down the road and you gonna find everything this town has."
Without bothering the sassy blacksmith anymore he exited the building and went further down the road. With the dagger went almost all his money, so he had to find a way to earn now. On the way he saw a couple more shops like Tailor, Potioneer, Bowyer, a couple stalls selling food and some other miscellaneous shops. Finally after about five minutes of walking he saw another one of the few two story buildings in the town. It had a plaque with a severed head of a Goblin with blood coming out of it painted on it. He didn't have to ask others to know what it was. He entered and what he saw entirely disappointed him.
That wasn't what all the stories were depicting. There were tables around here and a couple counters with receptionists behind it on the wall to the left there was a massive board with missions. But there were no drunk men, the people at the counter didn't really try to flirt with the receptionists, they were just minding their business. And there were no masses of Adventurers crowding with no respect at the quest board. They were standing in a couple of queues along the length of the board waiting for the others to pick their missions first.
Seeing this he walked over to one of the counters and stood in the queue. After approximately 10 minutes it was his turn.
"Welcome, what can I do for you young man?"
Behind the counter sat a middle-aged woman smiling at him. Influenced by the atmosphere here, he didn't want to stall and stop others from completing their quests so he went straight to the point.
"I want to become an adventurer, what do I have to do?"
"Oh, another one of those hotheaded youths eh?" She smiled to let him know she was just teasing him "There is not that much to do actually. You just have to fill in this form, and give it to me when you are done. You will receive your token as the Novice Adventurer, and are good to go."
"Oh there are no tests?"
"No, at the level of Novice, the Guild doesn't actually require anything from you besides completing at least 5 Missions a month. Only when you become an Apprentice Adventurer will you be subjected to the Combat Test, and a Value Evaluation. Then you will officially become the member of the Association."
"Oh so that's how it is. Ok, thank you I would like to fill in the form."
"Sure, here is the form and a piece of coal for you. You can sit at one of the tables and take your time."
"Thanks"
He sat down at the table and finally looked at the form. It wasn't actually that much different than the questions that Ralph asked him at the gate. They asked for his Name, Class, Level, And the main way of fighting as well as his favorite weapon.
He filled the form and went to the same counter as before.
"Thank you, and give me a moment I will go process it for you now."
"Yes, thank you"
(A/T; Why the hell do I feel some job Centre vibes from this place? Eh the nightmare)
After a couple of minutes the lady came back with a copper token that looked identical as the one he got from Ralph. The lady just said that I am supposed to go to the barracks, and show them my AT, which she explained as the abbreviation for Association Token, and give them back the temporary token. With that all the formalities would be done. Then he walked over to the mission board which at this point had a lot less people around it. There was a plethora of different quests, Help the Merchant, Clean the Library, Kill the Wolf Leader, Investigate a new cave in the North, but at the very top of the board there was a big sheet with a seal at the bottom right.
[Subjugate Goblin Leaders]
Threat
Recommended for Adventurers LVL 15 – 20
Reward
1 SC/ Leader; 5 CC/ Goblin
Warning
Recommended party size of at least 5
There have been sightings of a new Goblin Tribe in the vicinity.
Get rid of the leaders and kill as many of the pests as you can
Repeatable till further notice.
The Pharia Guard Captain - Torrento
After asking around he has come to know that the mission progress in the Association was being tracked by the token, you only had to register given mission and its progress would appear at your token.
It seems that Ralph was working fast, and the guards were treating the goblin threat with the utmost seriousness. He didn't really care, as long as he was being paid. With that, he used all his leftover copper to buy some miscellaneous supplies and food, and exited the town to start killing goblins and finally get some money. If it went well he could even buy a new bow, because the one he had would hold for at most another month. When he was walking out the same gate that he entered through he once again saw Ralph.
"Going out to hunt?"
"Heh, you posted such an enticing reward, how could I miss that"
"You going alone kid? It's dangerous you know? You gotta form a Group"
"I'm going alone, I am good at Sneaking so it shouldn't be a problem"
"Eh, young boys these days, so hot headed. Don't die there."
"Mhm"
And with this Mark went in search of some goblins to kill.