After two days, we arrive at Catros kingdom. The kingdom that can provide transportation to the central continent, so naturally, it is stronger and better than the other two kingdoms here in the northern continent. In Nrowe's quest in conquering the northern continent, this kingdom should be the hardest.
"We will be stopping here in this village for tonight. Nunu can you buy some food?" I ask.
"Of course!"
I gave him enough money to buy food which would increase the food we got by at least another two weeks.
Now that his gone.
"There is no way you would follow me even after hearing my plan just because I let you have a conversation with your family. So will you now please tell me what it is that you want?" I ask Zel.
"And why would you ask me something that I want?"
"That is because I want to have a mutual agreement. People unite either because they have the same goals or it will benefit them" I replied.
"Then what about those kids then? They were treating you as if you were their benefactor."
"Well from their point of view, that would be the case. Even though I am just doing what I should do, it is not up to me if they decide whether they will stay or not" I said pridefully.
"It's really fun watching you! You keep fabricating such nonsense to twist your words" (Loki)
This God is so annoying! I didn't fabricate it to begin with, both Alfred and Nrowe really did have the chance of rejecting my offer back then.
"Shouldn't you be hiding your true colors in front of me?" Zel ask.
"If I want to have a connection with you, I don't mind doing this much"
Yeah, right, as if I would actually show who I am. My personality is quite pitiful if I do say so myself.
"You are not planning to kill any people indiscriminately, correct?" He ask.
"Of course not."
"Then I don't like anything else other than serving directly under you then"
"You don't want anything?" I ask.
"No. Its just that when the time comes, I would like to tell my children that I help the great 'Hero' in his conquest"
"I see"
Ah, so nice to have someone who is normal.
After eating dinner, Zel went to bed while me and Nunu spar. Teaching him to use his body more efficiently would be better.
Morning came and we continued our journey.
"Let's go and register to the adventurers guild" I said.
"Why?" (Nunu)
"Because we will be able to get more information only available to adventurers. I already tried asking the adventurers guild before at Astel but they denied it even though I am the 'Hero'. Which is why we have to"
"Do you have anything in mind? Oh, by the way I am already registered there." (Zel)
"Dungeon hunting. We will be needing to find artifacts and other useful materials. If we are lucky enough then we should be able get our hands on a page of Solomon's forbidden grimoire."
The last time I went inside one, there were a lot. There's no way I can just ignore their existence now can I.
"Solomon's book is only a myth though" (Zel)
"There is still a chance that it actually exist you know"
"Master, what is that?" (Nunu)
"Solomon's forbidden grimoire has one hundred pages. And each page contains a skill. Normally, people have to reach a certain level of threshold to get one, which is why to those who have a high level cap are treated better than the ones who have a low level cap. But Solomon's grimoire is capable of giving an extraordinary skill just by touching the paper. They say that all pages are indestructible. And the only way to get it from someone who already took one is to kill them. Once they died, the page that person absorbed will appear"
We arrive at the guild with no problems on the way. Inside, you can see barbaric adventurers rough housing and screaming, fighting for quests and etc. I wore a pair of gloves before we got here, I am hiding my identity after all.
"Can we register as adventurers?" I ask the receptionist.
"Of course, just follow me to take some test"
"We will be waiting here then" (Zel)
On the way as I follow the receptionist...
"Not all of my powers will be seen right?" I ask quietly.
"Not at all. It is a 'blessing' and is not natural therefore it won't be seen by humans using their flimsy technology"
Meaning, only the abilities I got from absorbing the dragon's soul will be seen then.
"Please put your hand on top of this orb. This will measure your mana pool"
I put my hand on top as she said and the orb glowed, just a bit. That isn't so surprising since I already know that I have a little mana pool.
"Hmmm, your mana pool seems to be quite low. Nothing to worry about! It is all about skills after all! Now please follow me for a practical test"
She sure is energetic.
We went to the guild's backyard(?) to do the practical.
"Please do anything you want to that dummy. I will be appraising your skills myself"
"Is that really okay?"
"Yes. Guild receptionist must be able to do this at the very least. It is part of the requirement to be able to discern those who are talented and those who are not. We must dispose of those who can't keep up and those who only knows how to talk"
She speaks in a gentle manner but the message of her words are bit... cruel. Though I do agree with what she says, I can't help but feel something eerie when she said all that with a carefree smile.
"
I shot the dummy with a very tiny fire shot. The fire slowly went across and finally hit the dummy. Right after contact, everything turn to dust.
Whoa there, I didn't thought that it would be this powerful. Even the girl receptionist got surprised.
"I see. You have a low mana pool hence why the fire ball just now was so small but the power of your abilities on the other hand is superb. Congratulations, you pass the practical exam"
"Um, is there something that adventurers needs to know first? Like an introduction"
"There is. Let's sit down first"
We went to the bench and sit.
"The ranks between adventurers are divided into seven. Tier one is the highest while tier seven is the lowest. Beginners would starts at tier seven and climb up. In tier one, it is divided into five. S, A, B, C, D. S is the highest rank while D is the lowest. Adventurers will only be acknowledge when they reach tier two while some call mid rank those who are in the tier three. So basically, tier four to tier seven are amateurs"
Again with her explanation. Sigh. Forget it.
"There are currently twelve thousand D rank tier one adventurers, eight thousand C rank tier one, two thousand B rank tier one, four hundred A rank, and lastly, seven S rank tier one adventurers. This is around the world"
"There are only seven adventurers who are in the S rank? Plus, are you even allowed to tell me something like this?"
"Yes, I am allowed since it is pretty much well known to everyone already. As for the seven S rank adventurers, they are known as the '7 Kings'. One of them already possess influence which is on par to a whole nation. Amazing right?"
"Yes"
That is indeed amazing. That just shows how powerful they are.
"The next part is the rules and regulations: You are not allowed to kill anyone without any reason. You are not allowed to abandoned your mission. Illegal activities is also a no go. False reports onto the guild. Depending on what you do, the severity of the punishment will be different as well. The least thing you will do if you offend any of what I just said just now, you will have to pay a fine of fifty gold coins and at worst, the death penalty"
"Then what if the guild provided wrong information?"
"The guild will have to pay the adventurer/s with money depending on how bad it was"
"Okay, please continue"
"Adventurers are not allowed to participate in a war"
"What kind?"
"Wars between nobles or even royals. If people sent out a quest to help them, adventurers will be thrown to prison, they are adventurers not mercenaries. However, if that adventurer is already part of it in a way then it is okay. For example, some soldiers killed his or her friends, then by all means, that adventurer with ties to the one that was killed is allowed to beat the crap out of those barbaric muscle brain idiots"
Her speech is getting crude even more.
"There are also times when adventurers are allowed if said war is related to liberating people from the grasp of corrupt people. Other than that, they are allowed to participate in any other wars"
"What if they do not have any choice but to participate since it will end up endangering their properties like their house?"
"That would be acceptable. So long as the adventurer have a single valid reason then they are allowed to do so"
"What about dungeons?"
"Dungeons are places where mana gathers that can either creates monsters, multiplies monsters or even both sometimes. Because of it, the place gets warp and the whole place will be home for nearby monsters since the concentration of mana is bigger which will make the monster even stronger.
There are two types of dungeon: The continuous dungeon and the pop up dungeon. A continuous dungeon is a dungeon where it doesn't vanish, making adventurers go there again and again. While the pop up dungeon is a dungeon that will only open for a set amount of time. The difference between the two is that continuous dungeons are safer than pop ups since the lay out for the continuous dungeons are already created and are rank base on their difficulty. Meanwhile, the pop up is a complete mystery since no one have ever went in, the difficulty would also be unknown"
"What about monsters?"
"Monsters exist because of the negative mana. Negative mana originates from negative emotions that we emit. Monsters like goblins is a perfect example. They possess the traits of greed and lust. Orcs possess gluttony. And demons possess both pride and wrath"
"Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. I'm sorry for taking too much of your time"
"Not at all. Because these days, tras- I mean, adventurers are pretty chaotic. They are not modest like you so seeing someone like you relieves me a bit"
Was she going to say 'trash' just now?
Half an hour later, everything went smoothly and nothing problematic came. They also explain to me the basic rules and regulations.
"Please wear this ring at all times. It will serve as your identification tag throughout the entire world for every branch of the adventurers guild. This ring will also record your quest history. If you want to raise your rank, do ask the receptionist. That is all"
I meet with the others and quickly go to a dungeon. The dungeon we are going to is an intermediate one. Nunu and Zel will be going to the dungeon north-east from here while I'm gonna go to the one located south from here.
Nunu and Zel's dungeon is infested with animal beast type monsters. With Zel's necromancy surely there won't be any problem.
As for me, a venomous plant type dungeon. No one really dares to go there due to the poison it emits, additionally all request to go there are denied. Despite being an intermediate class, it is quite hated. Besides, the only reason why it is considered as intermediate class is because of the poison it possess.
After arriving, I can see why no one would dare go here. The poisonous fog here is more potent than the miasma Zel made.
While above the dungeon or rather forest using the car, I just bombed everything with
After making sure everything burned within two hundred meters, I use
Now that I have a safe point, I should start exploring this forest. Time to go find something valuable.
...
That was longer than expected. I'm sure those two will scold me later. I enjoyed my time here too much to the point I stayed here for five whole days. It was worth it though. Found some useful materials and some really poisonous plants.
---(At the meeting place/The inn)---
I explained to the two what I was up to and that there was no need to get worried over some spilled milk.
Putting our loots on top of the table, now that I got a closer look we hauled a lot.
Separating the useful ones with the useless ones, we then divided everything according to our best benefits; Zel got a ring and a wand, Nunu got two short swords, while I got a wand and a sword. Naturally all of the items have effects beneficial to us.
After another week. We boarded the ship to go to the central continent, the Empire. It took quite a lot to bribe some people to let us bring my car.