[The Adventurers Guild]
This was the place Rowan needed to visit.
It was his path to becoming stronger.
If he wanted to be able to fight and be able to more safely travel the world, then he needed knowledge.
Knowledge about various animals, environments, tricks, tactics, and techniques.
If he was going to learn these things, he needed to find people who already knew this stuff.
Rowan eventually walked into the guild building, glancing around at the insides.
There were some tables spread around, with only a couple people sitting around and chatting.
There was a large board filled with various fliers separated into different segments, and a large counter with a couple of people sitting at a counter.
After looking around for a few moments, Rowan walks forward.
He was still carrying the same burlap sack on his back, and had his hatchet on his hip.
He had bought new clothes, and was wearing a pair of dark green leather pants and a dark green vest as well. He would sometimes switch form wearing a short sleeve shirt or a long-sleeve button up under the vest as well.
They were much more resilient than his old clothes, and fit and felt much better too.
"Hello sir, how can I help you today?" A girl sitting at the counter asked.
She had short brown hair in a pixie cut and seemed a bit smaller than the other girls sitting at the counter.
"Hello. I was wanting to join the Adventurers Guild." Rowan said.
"Oh, that's great! I need to know your class, level, and if you have the [Adventurer] profession. It will also cost 5 silver coins." She said.
"[Adventurer] profession?" He asked back.
"Yeah, it isn't necessary, but when the guild was established, it was something necessary, but after some time we stopped having it as a requirement to join, but some of the senior members of the guild still wanted to give those with it priorities, incentives, and even better offers on things, but you don't need to worry about that for the time being." She said.
When Rowan heard this, he was pretty sure that having that profession would change the way people acted to you in the guild. It sounded almost like an elitist club for those with the [Adventurer] profession, but he didn't care too much about that.
It wasn't like he was planning on staying with them forever.
"Well, I don't have it." He said.
"Ah, that's a shame then. So, class and level?" she asked.
"Level 2, and [Forest Prowler]." Rowan said.
She wrote down the level, but after hearing the class, she paused for a few moments.
"I have never heard of that one before. It is a physical combat class, right?" She asked.
"Yep. Works well in forests." He said while tapping the hatchet on his hip.
She gave a small nod and filled out the details.
"And lastly, I will need your name." She said.
"My name is Rowan." He told her.
"Any family name?"
He just shook his head at that, and placed down the 5 silver coins necessary. He had less than 100 copper coins left, so he would need to get some more soon.
"Alrighty then! Just wait here for a few moments and I will go get your ID!"
The small girl went through a door in the back, so Rowan walked over to the large bulletin board.
There were numerous missions available, but just like everything else, they also had Grades. Probably to keep people from biting off more than they could chew.
The missions went from Grade 0 all the way up to Grade 4. There were some blank areas above that, but there weren't any missions there.
He looked them over, and they were as he expected.
Hunting, gathering, mapping, protection, a large variety of things.
Rowan looked over some of the hunting ones that were located in a nearby forest. The forest is called Whitepids Forest.
It covers the entire west and northwest of the area, and it's where most of the missions were located.
For animals, plants, ores, all sorts of stuff were found in there.
Another reason why Rowan chose it, was because of his class, and the skill [Forest Striding Lv. 1] that he has never got a chance to use before.
While he was thinking about it, he looked over some of the missions, and was thinking about taking some Grade 1 missions, but he knew he needed to stick with Grade 0 for the time being so he can learn how to fight.
As he was looking at them, the girl came back out and called for him.
He walked back over and found a small rectangle shaped piece of metal, with his name, level, and class.
"If you ever want to get some of this updated, you can go to any branch of the Adventurer Guild and request it for free." She said.
"Thank you. For missions, how do I accept them?" He asked.
"Oh that part! You just need to take it down from the board, bring it over to us, and we will mark it down. Each mission has its own requirement date which it needs to be completed by, and if you fail to complete it within that time, then it will be marked as failed and made available to others." She said.
"And the failures will be marked down, and once you reach 5 failures, there is a large chance that you will be kicked from the guild. But each mission you fail, you will have to pay half of the reward amount as a fee." She spoke.
Rowan gave a small pondering nod. It sounded understandable, so he just went along with it.
"Alright, any limit to the amount I can accept at a time?" He asked.
"Usually 3 is the limit, but if you can make a case for why it would be alright to take 4 or more, the secretary like me can allow you to take more. An example would be gathering missions with the required plants being found in the same area." She told him.
After Rowan heard this and took his ID Card, signed up for 2 different missions which need to be done in 3 days, and left the building.
The first mission was to hunt down a Grade 0 deer and bring it back to a restaurant. After taking it to the restaurant, the owner who posted the mission would sign the mission paper he took and he would take that back to the guild to receive his reward.
The second mission was to hunt down a Grade 1 Herb known as White-Swine Thistle. He needed to cut off 3 stems with flowers from the plant, but leave the rest alone. In the future, once they grew back, someone else would be able to come gather some.
Rowan stopped by a small shop to buy some leather gloves, and a small wooden box that he could carry the White-Swine Thistle in, and put it in his sack.
After having bought the box, he headed out into the forest.
It was his first time walking into a forest, and couldn't help getting a little excited. He took his time after walking in a bit, and just stood still for a few moments to enjoy the environment. Feeling the soft breeze, the chirping of beards, the rustling of the trees.
It was bliss.
Rowan slowly slipped his hatchet into his hand before preparing himself to run.
He used the skills [Forest Striding Lv. 1] [Nature Camouflage Lv. 2] [Stealth Lv. 2], and the ability [Prowling Lv. 2].
After they were all triggered, he dashed into the forest with reckless abandon.
Atleast, that's how it may have appeared for others.
For him, he finally felt free, and as if he was finally using his body to its fullest.
He also began to understand the purpose of [Forest Striding]. With it on, he could move through the forest with ease. Stepping on the safest of places, gliding around trees, not making any unnecessary movements.
He was even sure that there was stuff he was missing, but he wouldn't worry too much about that for now.
It was time for him to train, get his level up, and hunt.
---------------
Rowan ran for hours and hours, before finally coming to a stop near the bottom of a cliff in a clearing.
He was able to find the White-Swine Thistle that was requested, and carefully knelt down beside it with his hatchet.
He slipped on the pair of newly bought leather gloves, and gently grabbed the thistle.
The thistles entire stem was covered in spines that could easily poke someone. And the main purpose of this plants poison was a toxin that would numb the area where it was poked. This was used for medical purposes, where they needed to numb an area first, for things like stiches, minor surgeries, injections, whatever reason there was, and to act as a localized pain killer for injuries. This was after someone with the required profession made it into a paste.
He set the small wooden box to the side before gently cutting off 3 stems with the flowers still on top before setting them in the box.
However, he still decided to take a stem for himself. He made sure that it was a decent cut, before quickly vanishing into his [World Seed] and planting it before reappearing.
After packing his things up again, he began striding back into the forest, on the lookout for any other Grade 1 or higher plants or trees, while also beginning to look for tracks of deer.
He would love to find something interesting, and getting something like a Grade 1 berry bush, vegetable plant, or some tree that grows lots of fruits, would be something he would love the most.
He had loved that Silver Star fruit, and wanted to taste many more in the future.
Rowan traveled around the area for a few more hours, and it was starting to become night time. It was only about this time that he found a small herd of a few deer, that he paused in an area where he could freely see them, and entered his [World Seed].
He decided to stay in his [World Seed] for the night, but it was also because of his mission. He needed a deer, sure, but not when it had been dead for hours and hours, and was starting to go spoil.
So, he decided to stay near them, where he can watch them from inside his little dimension.
He also took the time to expand the space to one more yard deeper underground, so that now the dirt was 2 yards deep.
He slept through the night, and the next morning when he woke up early, he knew it was time to hunt.
The deer were still there, and Rowan slipped out of his [World Seed] undetected.
He looked at the herd, and decided to take one of the middle-sized bucks. He was going to have to carry it out since he wanted to avoid accidentally raising questions about moving something that big with his [World Seed].
He activated his skills and abilities, rushing towards the buck. When he was getting close enough, he also activated [Ambush], making him pounce on the buck and swing his hatchet towards its neck, more specifically, its spine.
Some of the other deer had noticed the intrusion into their herd and started to either panic or run, but it was already too late for this buck he had set his sights on, and it dropped dead after having its spinal cord severed.
Rowan cautiously looked around himself, and didn't see any of the deer preparing to attack him. He quickly grabbed the deer's legs before caring it back towards the town with a slow jog.
He had also realized that his class had leveled up once again.
[Forest Prowler Lv. 3]