It was a minor magical item but one that confirmed that he was an adventurer who had cleared dungeons.
"I'm not an adventurer." I repeated as the bartender brought my drink across. I handed him a gold piece. Turning back to Fulcrum I continued. "I have just cleared a couple of dungeons."
Fulcrum looked at me, dumbfounded. "You aren't an adventurer, but you've cleared dungeons? What type of party would let a none adventurer in?"
"The non-adventurer kind." I said flatly.
"You know that clearing dungeons without an adventurers license is illegal?"
"No, I do now though." A thought came to mind then. "How are adventurers ranked in this country?"
"Well, there's twenty ranks, from Pewter rank all of the way up to Legend rank. The king is Legend, but the highest anyone really ever reaches is diamond." The halfling explained.
"So what rank are you?"
"I'm only at iron rank. Only started four years ago, reckon I'll be at bronze rank in about fifteen years? Give or take." He said, showing me a chain about his neck with a small iron plate on. "If you want to sign up and do raids legally then there's an adventuring hall just around the corner."
I thought on it for a bit, if I was an adventurer then I wouldn't be questioned for my gear and I wouldn't have to search around for dungeons on my own.
I quickly finished my ale, I half expected to feel some sort of buzz but I realized that I was immune to poison still.
"Thanks for the information." I grinned and strode away from the bar.
"Wait!" Fulcrum ran after me on little legs. "I'll take you there, introduce you to the staff."
"Hmm, alright then. Lead the way."
"By the way, my name is Fulcrum Ipodex, you are?" He spoke as we walked along the street.
"Yolen, Yolen Arcanum." It felt oddly natural to announce myself as that name.
"Nice to meet ya!" Fulcrum said "If you don't mind me asking? What job are you?"
I thought for a second then decided to go with my actual job, if it put me in a bind I could leave just as easily as I entered.
"Arcane Lord." I said flatly.
Fulcrum laughed "Never heard of it, all will be revealed when you apply."
"You get appraised when you apply?" I recalled my prior appraisal, no-one really liked my chosen race.
"Yeah, you get re-appraised every few months or when you think you've gone up a rank."
"What makes each rank?"
"Your average stat, if it's above sixty, like mine. Then you'll be an iron rank or higher." We turned a corner and entered a street with a large building at the end, large sign with a sword and shield above the doorway.
"For diamond you need average stats of 180 at least." He continued. "That's at least 40 successful raids in iron ranked dungeons."
My average stats would be something for these people to behold then.
"So who's the strongest in the kingdom?" I asked, genuinely interested in the answer.
"The king, he's a legend rank adventurer. He's in a league of his own, his strength stat is supposed to be over one thousand. There's only a few others with stats as high as his and they're from the east. They rule kingdoms of their own."
"Oh, how're his other stats?"
"His average is just shy of seven hundred but it's kind of blown out of the water by his immense strength."
"Yeah, I get what you mean."
"Anyway," Fulcrum said, pushing the doors to the building open. "Welcome to the registration building." He ushered me in.
It was a large chamber with a bowed roof, large tables and benches lay across the room with numerous people, chatting and drinking on them. All were in clothing that was fully or partially armoured and all were armed. At the back end of the room were two massive barrels that filled the whole height of the room, adventurers were pulling pints from those barrels. And at the other end, the one closest to me was a desk and door behind. Manning the desk was a young woman, no. Not quite a woman, a cat woman. I was surprised at seeing my first of what must be a beast-kin. I quickly brought up her stat screen and found that she was a beast-kin, also a tamer. We approached her.
"Hello, Bell. My friend here wants to register as an adventurer." He gestured to me.
"Hi." I said, awkwardly greeting her.
She looked at me, seemingly skeptical that I wanted to sign up. "You sure he's not registered already?" She asked.
"Oh no, I'm not. Didn't know I had to be." I explained, scratching the back of my head.
"Alright. Sign here then." She brought up a sheet of paper, it wasn't magical but basically said that we agree to be appraised, the contents of the appraisal are recorded but they don't reveal the details to others.
"Okay." I signed at the signaled line with a quill that she gave me and straightened up.
"Now, come with me to the appraisal room." She turned to leave, I looked towards Fulcrum and he beckoned me forwards.
"Good luck, I look forwards to knowing your actual job." He grinned.
The beast-kin woman left through the door behind the desk, holding it open for me. I joined her in the next room. It was a lavish suite with a woman in purple robes sat at a chair behind a writing desk. She looked up, I recognized this woman.
'Is she the one who appraised me the first time?'
Her eyes met mine and she flashed a knowing smile.
'Yes, it's her. But she was never against me in the first place, just hired.'
"Welcome sir, please take a seat." The woman in purple waved to the seat across from her.
As I got into the seat, the younger woman, the beast-kin, made her way back to the front desk of the building.
The woman in the purple robes pulled down her hood and looked at me.
"Hello again, fallen one. Have you recovered any memories yet?" She asked, a hint of curiosity in her voice.
"Not yet. What happened back at that village after the questioning anyway?" I returned.
"Nothing much, I was dismissed and then heard about you and your fellow prison mate escaping seamlessly. I wonder how you managed that?" She said, leaning across her desk. She was younger than I thought, about thirty at a guess, human looking and beautiful in a composed way.
"I wonder." I mused.
"Anyway," she lent back. "Best get this appraisal underway." She retrieved a piece of paper from the side, one with boxes drawn out. Someone with normal vision wouldn't have been able to see the faint magic on the page, but it was there.
"Before we start." I spoke up, "Prior warning that my stats and level have gone up." I gestured towards my clothes.
"It will be fine, I've done more than my fair share of appraisals." She waved her hand dismissively.
"No, seriously, try not to get too shocked, alright?"
"Okay, I promise not to get too shocked." She smirked, "I'll be doing a deep appraisal, you've already signed and given your consent but I'm just saying again."
"Alright." I sat back.
She started muttering the words to an incantation and I knew that it was a way less efficient version of my own appraisal skill. The mana, extremely small traces of it, yet somehow 4000 points worth flowed around her and me, making its way onto the page instead of the air. The woman in the purple opened her eyes from the spell and looked down at the sheet, then rubbed her eyes, then looked again.
"What?!" She called out. "Level 136? You're an ascended in four days?" She looked up at me with shock.
"I told you that my stats had gone up." I shrugged.
"You didn't quite get to telling me that an ascended was sitting right in front of me." She eyed me, then looked down at the stats and skills on the sheet. For the first time, I noticed that the sheet had actually multiplied to fit in all of my skills. The woman in purple started pouring through all of the sheets, listing off my skills. She spent an especially long time on my individual skill. "Power of creation?" She muttered. After looking through my stats and skills for a time, she peered up at me.
"You're officially the highest rank of adventurer, legend rank. Only two in this kingdom now, there are four over the continent."
"Thank you." I said.