The handbook spoke of rules and etiquette that many fantasy readers know, but Athelei clearly wasn't too familiar with.
Of course, there were specifics unique to Oxhor, such as the fact that Mystic Artifacts related to Libra were explicitly requested by the Church of Libra. This applied if the Adventurer was in Illyas—which meant that Adventurers will gain merits for any of their finds but will one hundred percent lose ownership of the item they uncovered. Another weird rule was that no Adventurer was allowed to do handstands in front of the Guild. Violators for both could be imprisoned and persecuted.
Athelei really had no clue why that handstand rule was present, and for once, he did not wish to know. It was fun with how it was just there without him knowing why.
So, let's breeze through the generic rules,
=o=o=o=o=
● Adventurers may only accept quests at their rank or below.
● An Adventurer's rank depends purely on their merits and they go from E-rank to A-rank.
● Merits are granted from quest completion and are lost upon failure. The degree of success or failure affects the calculations.
● Merits can also be granted through the selling of information, treasure, ancient artefacts, beast loot, and more to the Adventurer's Guild.
● Quest rewards are only gained through the completion of the relevant quests.
● Adventurers may form parties, but each flyer corresponds to one quest and therefore, one set of quest rewards.
● None shall participate in fighting within Guild territory.
=o=o=o=o=
It didn't take long for Athelei to read through the handbook while he leisurely sat on one of the guild building's benches.
'Simple and free,' Athelei summarized the essence of the Adventurer's Code with those words.
It was, after all, a profession that based itself around trials and bravery.
'Many Adventurers meet cruel ends in the depths of ancient crypts while only a few bask in glory.' Athelei hummed this thought in his head. He was walking towards the tall quest boards where requests literred the brown cork material.
His eyes trailed the flyers printed by the guild staff. Cleaning, searching for lost pets, general errands, and other mundane tasks populated the board.
Such was the fate of the E-ranks.
Athelei, though was excited. Mortals had such fascinating systems in place and he relished each one.
'All Adventurers start as slaves, eh?' He pocketed the handbook when a guild staff member walked up to the E-rank board to pin more flyers.
Another batch of mundane tasks was added, but there were a few tasks that included a small red note that read,
=o=o=o=o=
Priority!
=o=o=o=o=
It drew Athelei's interest and he swiftly snatched the flyer just as it was pinned. He noticed a few other Adventurers had gone and done the same.
Athelei read the contents of the flyer and his interest grew a tad bit.
=o=o=o=o=
Needed urgently!
Manpower for tonight's fishing trip! It's a new moon and hands are needed!
Aquatic beasts may appear, so those capable of combat are appreciated!
Please come to the southern seaside port ASAP!
Reward: 3 large coppers.
=o=o=o=o=
After reading the flyer, Athelei glanced towards the other Adventurers and noticed they were all looking at each other. Awkward nods and greetings occurred when they realised that they would be working together.
Taking a quest was not in Athelei's initial plans, but he was a flexible existence. He nodded at the other Adventurers and they all made their way out the guild building.
A lot of people had their eyes set on Athelei whenever he passed by. He no longer wore his hood as he walked with the group, and such was the consequence of his actions.
There were gazes of intrigue, wonder, and disgust. It was a flurry of different kinds and was expected of humans.
But Athelei only found this fondly amusing. He noted down how easy it was to direct human thought even with only his appearance. It could prove to be something useful in the future because it also connected well with the ideas behind Sway.
His Adventurer companions were less shocked by Athelei's grey body, saying that they actually had been spotting weird grey beings in their adventures recently.
Athelei suspected what they had seen might have been Nightwalkers, but as he conversed with them, he learned that these grey beings were beast-shaped. The Adventurers likely connected this to the state of war that Illyas was assuming. As such, the grey beasts had been affected by some weird foreign power.
With that considered, they only thought Athelei was unlucky and pitied him. They asked about what kind of ruin could have cursed him in such a manner.
"It felt like it wasn't supposed to be in this world." Athelei had answered with an ominous tone.
The Nefarious Icon came from beyond Oxhor's skies, after all. It was only right to describe it with 'otherworldly' even if it was but a half-lie.
The Adventurers nodded grimly as their own traumas haunted them, and moved the conversation elsewhere.
Eventually, they made it to the location specified on the flyer. The air smelled strongly of salt and seaweed. They stood in the dim light of a few mystic light wisps. While in the sky, there was no moon that shone silver rays.
One of the Adventurers took a deep breath and sniffed the air. He called himself Jo and he wore simple gear and had a sword slung his waist. His hair was a light brown and so were his eyes.
"I can smell a beast tide," He said, drawing attention towards himself.
"For real, Jo? At this time of the year?" An Adventurer who looked like a bear and was the biggest in the group had asked.
Jo nodded, taking another whiff of the sea breeze, "It should arrive in a day or two... But my gut tells me something's wrong. It's the same feeling when I'm about to enter a trap-filled corridor."
The bear-like Adventurer sighed when he heard this, "Perhaps that could be why the fishermen need us."
He pointed over to a few more groups of messily-geared Adventurers. "Look, those must be others just like us. They might've taken the following batches of flyers."
Jo squinted and looked in the direction the bear-like Adventurer was pointing at, "Hey... isn't that, Cammille..?"
"...You're right!" One of the other Adventurers piped up, "What's a C-rank doing accompanying fishermen? Where's her party?"
The Adventurers began talking amongst themselves as they looked for the person who sent out the request.
Athelei recalled the Nightwalkers he had sensed back in the black market and attributed a high likelihood that they had something to do with the weird happenings going on.
'It seems like blowing themselves up has heavy drawbacks as expected so they rarely put it to use. Do they actually die or are they simply incapacitated for a time if they blow up their consciousnesses?' Athelei wondered as he listened in on the topics being discussed.
It seemed like Cammille's party had gone further south of Avina a few days ago to search the hill-filled plains there. In fact, many high-rank parties had been drawn there due to the recent discovery of a subterranean kingdom. It was rumoured that the kingdom might be one that could span the entire southwestern area of Illyas.
Many treasures could be waiting there, but they also discovered hordes of mutated beasts and many monsters. They thought that the monsters might have been remnants from the beast surge a hundred years ago and thus packed up a lot of their strength to go on a long expedition.
It was, therefore, weird to see Cammille out here, all alone. And she was accompanying low ranks on a fishing trip.
After a few minutes of walking through the docks, Athelei and co made it before their employer.
It was a tall middle-aged man with surprisingly ripped muscles. Athelei's four-year-old physical body was puny in comparison.
The man had a bald head and quite a few scars on his face. He had an array of harpoons by his side and looked even more fearsome than the Adventurers that stood in front of him.
"Oh!" He exclaimed in a rough tone, "Call me Apple. I've been waiting for you guys. Hop on and we'll head out right away."
Apple... whose name really contrasted with the way he looked, literally hopped onto his fishing boat. The boat rocked because of his weight as splashes of water sloshed onto the dock.
The boat itself was on the larger side of its kind, but seeing the hulking Apple on it made it seemed like a normal-sized boat.
Six Adventurers stepped onto the bobbing boat and Athelei came in last. More than half of the Adventurers instantly got to work. It seemed like this was not the first time they had taken a job such as this. Their hands busily handled the ropes and oars with trained dexterity.
A total of eight people set sail in the darkness of the night.
There was only a handful of lamps on Apple's boat, and the stars were their overhead guides. It brought about a beautiful sight if one were to ignore what beasts lay under the waves.
Apple then gave the main mast of his ship a good few knocks. The Adventurers who were scattered about the ship directed their gaze to their employer.
"I know I said three large copper coins, but I'm a generous man." Apple started off a short speech, "We're going to be going after a few mutant beasts."
Apple grinned as the Adventurers realised that the quest was unlikely to be one for E-ranks.
"But the mutant beasts are not sure to come out, so I didn't wanna spend much on the Guild's fees. If we do reel some of em in though, then I'll be giving ya'll a bonus. And with my babies here," Apple gestured to his harpoons that everyone could now see was glowing faintly, "You little E-rankers can earn coins above your rank!"
"Of course, if you don't want in, you can always jump off the boat. What do you guys say?"