After Nathaniel, Clarence, and Sonia officially registered their party the Guild Hall began to empty. The disappointed looks on many of the Adventurer's sunken face. Many were likely promised treasures or promotions if they could bring the young boy in their fold but alas no one succeeded.
The new party went to the quest board looking for a new quest. Even though Nathaniel had already completed a quest for his exam, he still felt like this was a whole new adventure his first quest as an Adventurer. Parties were a little different than solitary Adventurer's they were allowed to take a quest that was one rank above their highest members rank. So since they were all Tin ranked Adventurers they could take an Iron ranked quest if they so desired. Sonia and Nathaniel were eager to take on the challenge of an Iron quest but, Clarence had far more reservations.
Each rank was separated by a large gap in ability it was the gap between life and death. A top ten adventure in one rank would have a fifty percent chance of death if the took on a quest of the next rank. Even though they were in a party it was still risky and Clarence felt that he had to be the voice of reason for these two battle maniacs. He wasn't just worried of the rank gap but, also that fact that he knew those two would try and pick an absurdly challenging quest.
"Look now let's be reasonable. It's our first quest as a party let's just pick a promotion level Tin quest so we can get to know each other as a team." Clarence reasoned. This was to no avail, those two monsters just kept on looking through the Iron quests as if Clarence hadn't said a word. Going back and forth feeding off each other like kids in a candy store comparing their favorites. Clarence could only sigh "Maybe I shouldn't have given this Union my blessing." sheding a small tear before continuing "I've just created a lions den for myself."
Finally Nathaniel and Sonia settled on a quest, It was a monster subjugation quest. A small town of less than five thousand souls, Rustelle, were being terrorized by a Polycorial Cyclops. A Polycorial Cyclops is an extremely rare type of the giant race of monsters. Cyclops possess just a singular eye typically laying just about the bridge of the nose but, what makes a Polycorial Cyclops special is that it has two pupils in its one eye. This allows it to rid itself of one of Cyclopes
largest weakness depth perception. This is what makes this typically low Iron rank monster a true upper Iron tier beast.
Rustelle wasn't too far from Welbrook only about a days walk to the Northwest. The party accepted the quest and planned to set out the next day. Those two maniacs Nathaniel and Sonia wanted to leave out right then but Clarence convinced them to take the rest of the day to gather the necessary items for the quest. He really wanted to give them time to rethink this whole quest but, he knew the chances of that were rather slim. Even so he at least wanted to be prepared for the daunting quest that lies ahead of him.
******
Nathaniel returned home to tell his father of the days events.
" My my that's rather dangerous it's a good thing Clarence was able to buy some time." William said before continuing, " You need some true Adventurers gear now, and I have the perfect blacksmith in mind."
Nathaniel knew exactly who he had in mind as he was his father best friend and the Vice Chairman of the Blacksmithing Guild, Ramon Ferry. Ramon was a truly talented blacksmith as evident by his status as the Vice Chairman, he also serves as the exclusive Blacksmith to the Duke of Welbrook. All his armor, weapons, and crafts were top class. Even his cheapest pieces were worth several gold coins. All knew they were in good hands if they had his mark upon their equipment. And that was something every Adventurer was in desperate need of, peace of mind in their equipment.
With this in mind Nathaniel and his father rushed over to Ramon's shop to pick up some things before he was to set off on his very first quest.