"Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild! How can I help you?"
They were greeted by a mature voice of a lady born from the snake-folk. Her neck is long. Her face is slender and snake-like. Shrouded by white scales and sitting in an elegant posture, It captivates the two sons of humble farmers.
"We want to sign up as an adventurer," Exmoor said quickly.
"Oh! Okay!" the lady quickly accepted their request.
In this world, the guild can easily accept new adventurer recruits because the world itself is dominated by beasts that can easily feast on one whole family.
While the knight armies are responsible for the safety of the country and everyone in it, They are not responsible for fulfiling people's daily needs. That is the task of adventurers. A lot of beasts also means a lot of resources that can be harvested. From meat, fur, bones, and magic core, mankind from this world have also been accustomed to feast upon the beasts themselves.
People from this realm have a long life expectancy. Humans can live for 500 years, while demi-humans can live from 800 to approximately 1 million years. Thus, most residents of this world lack the desire to produce offspring. Adding to the fact that this is a dangerous job, there will always be a high demand for adventurers.
"So first, you need to fill a form to record your identity," said the snake lady as she handed them the form. She then continued, "After that, I will assign you to a room to do a written test to examine your basic knowledge about adventuring stuff, and after the test is done, you will go to the guild's training ground so that we can test your physical and magical skills. We will evaluate your performance and assign you to the proper rank based on your ability. Do you have any questions before we moved on?"
"No," Shetland said.
"None from me," Exmoor said.
"The process won't take long. You can wait in the guild's hall until we finish our appraisal of your overall ability," said the lady while lending these men a pen.
These men with no home immediately took the pen and finished writing the form in a flash. They submitted the form to the receptionist lady named Kora.
The receptionist stood up in an attempt to guide them to the next test. They were taken into a room synonymous with a normal classroom with a blackboard, tables and chairs that are often used in an academy. The room was all built with woods. It was modest, yet tidy. Windows were installed to allow the morning light to illuminate the room.
The two confident men sat in the front. They sat quite distant from one another, to prevent cheating. They were then given another paper filled with many questions.
The examination paper tested their knowledge about the magical beast, wild plant, and other questions that an amateur knight can easily answer. Questions about methods of dismantling and harvesting are also presented during the test. This is because their jobs will mostly revolve around hunting and gathering. They were also tested about their knowledge of surviving in the wild environment. This is because adventurers are often forced to camp in the wild while in the middle of their quest.
They finish their written exam without much struggle.
they are now guided to the training hall. In the middle of it, the morning sun shone a spotlight on the man who is holding a long spear on his right arm with the blade of the spear planted deep on the dirt ground. They met a dwarf named Bragmir.
Though dwarfs are often depicted with tiny bodies, it is not the case for Alfred. He has brown long hair and a thick brown beard. His ears were pointy like the elves, but short akin to the humans. His skins are deep blue. With his height reaching beyond 2 meters, some people mistook him as a giant. His shoulder is wide, his arms, body, and legs are all nothing but muscles.
They made eye contact. This signed the beginning of the combat test.
"So.., these guys are the new applier?" said Bragmir in a very low tone. His voice was heavy and full of confidence.
"Yes," said Kora.
She handed him papers containing the data of the carefree couple.
Bragmir looked into the data with a gaze full of judgement. He turned his gaze to the two men who stood before him.
"Alright!" Bragmir voice echoed through the hall. "This test will be as simple as it gets. Fight me! Use Everything you got! Don't stop until I say so! Do you understand!?" he continued.
"Yes," the two men said simultaneously.
Kora took a step away from the ring in which a fight was about to start.
Bragmir spread his legs wide. He held his spear towards what now are his enemies. His left hand grabbed the end of the spear staff. His right arm grabbed the middle of the staff.
The two now unsheathed their swords from their hips. They soon ran towards different sides of the giant. Exmoor to the left, facing Bragmir's back. Shetland to the right facing Bragmir's front side.
A straight thrust immediately headed towards the dwarf's chest.
The giant spun his spear deflecting both of the attacks.
The ex-farmers took a step back. They fixed their knight stance.
Shetland continues to confront the colossus again and again. Their weapons kept clashing with each other. Bragmir still dominates the battle.
Though weak and easily deflected, Bragmir found no sign of giving up on Shetland.
Exmoor quickly chanted the wind magic to assist his friend.
Bragmir altered his gaze towards the magic circle. It was a distraction.
Shetland immediately aimed for the neck.
Bragmir hastily tried to block, but the ground suddenly change, taking Bragmir off balance.
Exmoor let his earth magic alter the ground evenness. The small changes managed to catch the blue warrior off-guard.
Shetland then uses his storage magic to steal Bragmir's spear. They ended the fight with both swords aiming at the dwarf's neck.
"Enough!" the giant said while admitting defeat.
They finished the test. Though not amounted to much, they felt like their experiences in the knight company are helping them in the test.
"Congrats on finishing the exam!" Kora approached the two men who are now full of sweat. "We will call you later and give you your adventurers card as an indication that you have become a fully-fledged adventurer. Once again, congrats! Please wait in the main hall until we inform you about your rank," she said with a warm smile on her face.
The two former knights then headed toward the main hall and wait. They sat on an empty bench near one of the receptionist desks.
"Hey," said Shetland trying to start a conversation.
"What?" Exmoor replied.
"What should we do after we become a proper adventurer?" Shetland asked.
"We do quests, of course, Lots of 'em," Exmoor said confidently.
"After that, then what?"
"We do another quest."
"Then?"
"We do another quest."
"Then?"
"Another one."
"Then?"
"Another one."
"Then."
"Another one!" Exmoor replied with excitement. He bulked up his chest while using one of his hands to point towards the ceiling.
"Is that it? just one quest after another?" Shetland said with his usual tepid voice.
"Well..., I mean we'll probably either die as an adventurer, or we can choose to retire and maybe start a family, you know. Get a wife, home, children..."
"That sounds like a pain in the ass," Shetland interrupted the dialogue.
"Life is a pain in the ass, buddy."
They stopped the conversation. They rested their back towards the bench and started to stare at the ceiling waiting to be called for their cards.
"The ceiling looks quite nice."
"Nah," Exmoor shrugged his shoulders. "Pretty normal to me. I've seen better," he continued calmly.
"Yeah."
"Mr Exmoor and Mr Shetland!" a familiar mature voice suddenly called them from afar.
"Congratulations! you are now a D rank adventurer!" Kora said while handing both these humans their guild cards.
They took the card with satisfaction written all over their faces. Receiving a rank that is not too high and not too low makes them pleased.
"Now Shetland, why don't we try one of the quests eh?" Exmoor suggested.
"Sure!" Shetland replied.
They looked back into the massive wall with a bunch of papers stuck on it.
[Request for Bags of Metal Peppers]
[1 Kilo = 15 silvers]
As they looked closely at the details of the quest, they realised that it comes from the owner of the roasted cockatrice restaurant.
Metal peppers are a species of peppers that can only be found in the Metallic Dungeon located south of the capital city. These peppers have the look of shiny rounded skin that is smooth like metal. Although they resemble metals, they are more delicate than normal peppers. If you crushed it, it would easily turn into powders and it would give out a smell that is very strong and can easily burn your nose and eyes. And once they were crushed, they can lose their flavour and fragrance very easily. This sensitive ingredient only grows on shrubs of metallic leaves inside the dungeon.