Gah-Hal approaches the reception and places the paper on the counter. He stands confidently leaning with his hand on the counter waiting until receptionist comes over. He looks behind him and sees Kira and Arik already leaving the guild with Kira pushing the door with a lot of strength. He told them that their results will be negative, but since they didn't believe him then that's on them.
Receptionist is then seen approaching Gahes behind the counter. She looks at him with small smile and then at paper. She takes the paper and looks at it. After a few seconds she nods and puts it somewhere inside the counter.
"Alright then. Do you wish to become adventurer right now or do you want to take your time with decision?" Receptionist asks with smile.
"Right now please." Gahes replies.
She then reaches back for the document and signs something on it. Then she takes other paper and writes something down on it, before placing it in front of Gahes.
"Last sign over here please." She says pointing on place on paper where she expects the signature.
Gahes takes the nearest coal pen and signs the paper, but before he did that he read that so he knows what he's signing. Once he is done signing the paper the receptionist takes it and attaches both papers by folding corners a little.
"Thank you. Please wait here for a second." Receptionist says with smile and goes through the door with the documents.
After 30 seconds receptionist comes back with a necklace that has wood with guild's symbol carved on it. She hands it to Gahes and he takes it right away. He wears it while also covering his golden necklace a little.
"Congratulations and welcome, Adventurer." Receptionist says kindly.
"So now I'm official wood rank adventurer yes?" Gahes asks just in case.
"Yes. You can now choose the quests that we offer on the quest board and many more. Do you have questions?" Receptionist asks.
"Can I take any quest I want or only the ones that are classified for my rank?" Gahes asks.
"You can only do the quests that are your rank or lower. That's for every adventurer's safety. You can however attend these quests if you are under supervision or in group with someone who has this certain rank." Receptionist says.
"I see. Thank you." Gahes says.
"Also please make sure to read the handbook to know rules that you need to follow to avoid troubles with law or guild. It will also give you some tips and knowledge about few common and uncommon things." Receptionist says.
"Of course. I will check it. Thank you." Gahes says with smile.
Gah-Hal slowly walks away from the reception, takes the adventurer's handbook from the shelf nearby and goes to the quest board. He stands in front of the board, but sees that there are no quests available for wooden ranked adventurers on it.
Boy simply shrugs and goes towards the window to look outside for a bit and read a handbook for a while. He stands by the window, opens the handbook and starts reading it from the beggining starting from rules.
As Gah-Hal begins reading the adventurer's handbook, he delves into the guidelines and rules that outline the conduct, responsibilities and expectations for members of the Adventurer's Guild. The manual provides detailed information on various aspects such as safety protocols, code of ethics, handling of quests and dealing with potential dangers.
Flipping through the pages, he absorbs the details about the different ranks, their respective quests and the precautions that should be taken while undertaking them. It educates him on the diverse creatures, environments and challenges he might encounter in his adventures.
After around 3 minutes of reading he closes the manual and puts it back to the shelf. In such a short time he managed to read everything he needed to know. Once the handbook is back on the shelf Gah-Hal goes to reception to ask for something. Receptionist stands from the chair and comes closer to him.
"Are there going to be some more quests for my rank soon or is there anything that I could do even now?" Gahes asks.
"There are few that aren't verified yet, but these can't be yet taken. Sorry, You will have to wait." Receptionist says.
"Okay. Thank you." Gahes says and walks away.
Since there is nothing he can do to climb higher in his lovely ranks legally right now, he decided to go back to the tavern to spend some more time with his companion. They expect him to bring something new with him everytime they see him. In this case it's a good news with wooden necklace.
As Gah-Hal leaves the Adventurer's Guild, the wooden emblem hanging around his neck, he heads towards the tavern confidently once again hoping there is going to be something fun possibly happening soon like another scammer to expose or secret criminal to intimidate.
After some time of a bit faster walk, Gah-Hal arrives by the tavern. Before he enters he sees that security throws some man out of the tavern by pushing him on the ground. The man is beat up quite brutally on his face. He stands up and walks away showing signs of pain in his movement.
Boy seeing that enters the tavern like always and sees that it's quite a mess inside. Tables are flipped over and some glass is broken. He stops by the entrance to the bar and looks around. In the corner he sees 5 people. One is the barman, other two are some unknown people. Another two are Hogel and Hanna.
Gah-Hal walks to the group to see what's going on. As he gets closer he sees that Hogel is covered in blood and cuts. Hanna is holding him with one hand and holds the sterile gauze on one of his wounds. Barman and another guy are sitting next to him and helping Hanna with few things. Third guy gets rid of the glass around them.
When Gah-Hal approaches Hanna sees him and shows some relief on her face.
"Gahes! Thank angels. Can you help us here?" Hanna yells to him showing a lot of worry on her face.
Before she finished her sentence Gahes kneeled nearby and grabbed Hogel's wrist.
"I was gone just for a moment and you already got into bar brawl. I thought I'm the least mentally mature here." Gah-Hal says holding Hogel's wrist.
"It wasn't our fault. I promise. We just drank some wine and this psycho just attacked him." Hanna says worried.
"He provoked him so now he's paying a price for this. This dumbass was mentally unstable and yet this fella bumped into him." Barman says.
"He didn't even bump into him. He purposefully went into Hogel's way!" Hanna says.
"You were drunk so you couldn't see properly. He bumped into his beer." Barman says.
"I swear I saw him getting into his way." Hanna says.
"You see things doubly. You couldn't see shit." Barman says.
"My sight-" Hanna is interrupted.
"Shut the hell up. All of you. We will deal with this later." Gah-Hal yells still holding Hogel's wrist.
Suddenly Hogel opens his eyes and wounds aren't visible anymore. He is still covered in blood, but he doesn't look like he has any injury right now. Gahes stops holding Hogel's wrist and positions him on Hanna's knees for comfort.
"Let him take few breaths. He was this close to passing away." Gah-Hal says sternly.
The tense atmosphere in the tavern is palpable as Gah-Hal takes charge of the situation, his demeanor unyielding. Hanna's concern for Hogel is evident in her eyes. Barman and the other patron seem to be waiting for Gahes to make a decision.
"You healed him so fast. Is it your speciality?" Barman asks.
"Let's say I can do everything by little." Gah-Hal says not wanting to talk more about it.
Gah-Hal stands up and goes to help cleaning the mess starting with glass.
"He will be fine now. Leave him be for now." Gah-Hal says gathering the broken glass.
Barman looks at Hogel for a little longer before going to clean the mess. Same with the other man who helped Hanna.
Hanna looks at Hogel keeping his head on her lap and cleaning the blood on his face and neck with the gauze. Now instead of worry she shows relief and happiness that Gahes came here in time.
18 Minutes Later
The mess has been taken care of. Everything is now back to normal except of two missing chairs and one missing table that were destroyed in brawl.
"Thank you for the help." Barman says to Gah-Hal and two other guys.
"Sure thing." First man says.
"Your welcome." Second man says.
Gah-Hal nods.
"So what's the estimated amount of loses? Chairs, table, glasses. How much do we owe?" Gah-Hal asks.
"We? I wanted the guy over there to pay half. He caused this too." Barman says.
"I will take his responsibility as his team member. Just say how much you want so we don't have to talk about it." Gah-Hal says.
"Then 10 silver coins." Barman says.
"Overpriced, but I know what I said so sure." Gah-Hal says and takes out 10 silver coins from his pocket again out of nowhere.
Gah-Hal places the coins on the counter next to the barman and goes to Hogel who looks normal now except of his clothes still being in blood.
He stands in front of Hogel and reaches his hand out to him. Hogel grabs his hand and stands up from Hanna's laps. Hogel holds Gah-Hal's hand for few seconds and shakes it.
"Thank you again." Hogel says grateful.
Gah-Hal pats his shoulder and makes a forced smile.
"You are slowly getting rid of your freedom friend." Gah-Hal says and wraps his arm behind his neck.
"Just letting you know, that if you force me to clean your mess and fix your mistakes for too much, then at some point you will end up imprisoned or dead for good, because at some point it will start to annoy me." Gah-Hal says trying to intimidate Hogel into not doing something like this again.
"Understood. Sorry." Hogel says clearly intimidated.
Gah-Hal stops wrapping his arm and goes to Hanna who is now standing.
"I hope the wine tasted well, because now you will have to repay for all that somehow." Gah-Hal says.
"I'm telling it to both of you." Gah-Hal says turning his head a bit to the left to look at Hogel with the side of his eye.
Gah-Hal takes few steps to the side to have a clear look at both of them.
"You probably saw this by now. I wanted to celebrate it a little with you two, but since you already celebrated hard enough then I changed my mind." Gah-Hal says holding his wooden necklace with his fingers.
Gah-Hal then walks between them.
"We will talk in our room." Gah-Hal says to Hogel and Hanna as he heads to their room.
Hogel and Hanna still embarassed with recent action, not wanting to make things worse decide to follow Gahes's requests.
Once the trio is now in their room, Gah-Hal sits on his bed and looks at his teammates. They also take a seat on their beds and look at Gahes hoping it's not going to be some kind of lecture.
"Though you almost died from bleeding out, things could always be worse. For example, you thankfully left your sabre in room. Thankfully Hanna wasn't involved in it too. Thankfully knights didn't intervene. A lot of factors that could've made it much worse than it was right now. I'm not saying that your death would be something good, don't overthink my words." Gah-Hal says leaning his elbows on his knees.
"Barman also told me that you were 'whooping psycho's ass very badly'. I don't doubt in your fighting skills, but how did you get so injured when nobody had any weapon there? Was it the glass he broke on you? I forgot to ask him before." Gah-Hal asks sitting in same position.
"Yes. He took the glass with the drink from someone there and broke it on my face. He also picked some shards and used them like a knife. I don't remember what next except of me falling over." Hogel says trying to hide anger.
"Barman said that once you fell on the ground, security and people in the bar intervened and threw him out of the bar. The rest I know cause I came the moment he was kicked out." Gah-Hal says.
Gah-Hal sits straight.
"Whatever. I managed to calm the situation down. You will just be remembered differently from now on. About the dude who started it all, don't worry about him now. His sins at some point will come out." Gah-Hal says smirking a little.
Meanwhile the man who attacked Hogel is sitting by the barrels in least crowded place in town. He sits there unalive literally headless. Just as Gahes said, sins will come out at some point.
"Putting that aside. I don't feel like drinking anything. Instead I wanted to tell you that I can now officially start doing adventurer's guild quests. I can take with me whoever I want, not necessarily another adventurers." Gah-Hal says showing his happiness back.
Hogel shows a little confusion.
"So. You want us to join you?" Hogel asks.
"Yes." Gah-Hal says confidently.
Hogel looks at Hanna who is smiling a little. She looks at Hogel and nods too. He then looks back at Gahes.
"For sure. I mean. We promised that we will pay back for the kindness you are giving us. Did you take any quest yet?" Hogel asks.
"There wasn't any available, but also I wanted to know if you want to join or not. If yes then it would be good to get something for both of you. Potions, tools, eventually scrolls because weaponry can't really be bought here." Gah-Hal replies.
Hogel changes seats himself more comfortably on his bed.
"So you want us to prepare before we are going to do anything?" Hogel asks.
"Yes. However I want to do the first quest by myself for now. Safety measures and some information gathering. So you are going to spend this entire day walking around Glazes and finding anything you might need for adventure if I manage to get any quest today. If not then you will have another day to prepare yourselves." Gah-Hal says.
Gah-Hal stands up from the bed.
"I would go shopping with you, but I don't want to lead you by the hand for the entire time. Im the youngest one here after all. It wouldn't look good. That's why I will leave you with your assessment and prediction skills." Gah-Hal says with smile holding his hands together.
"Anything you want to add? Your budget it 2 golden coins by the way. I left two pouches with 100 silver coins each. Could've been cheaper, but most of the times these are less effective so the potions, tools, scrolls, stones for at least silver coin should be better for you." Gah-Hal says keeping his hands together.
Hogel takes a quick look at Hanna and shakes his head. Hanna raises her hand a little.
"I just want to ask to be sure. You don't want us to buy anything for you? All this is just for us to... spend?" Hanna asks already uncomfortable if they are talking about Gahes's money.
"Yea. I don't need anything with me. That's my flex." Gah-Hal says crossing his arms with smile.
Hanna nods her head and sits more comfy on her bed. Gah-Hal then slowly starts heading towards the door.
"You got hell lot of time. If you will need me for something then I will wait in guild until something becomes available. In other case I will come back after sunset. If I won't come back after that then it's most likely the quest that takes more than day to complete." Gah-Hal says while walking.
Hogel looks at Gahes.
"Hey. I know you can kill vampires so I believe in you, but still I want to wish you good luck over there. Im not adventurer, but fate is treacherous." Hogel says with empathy.
"Oh right. I also wish you good luck." Hanna adds.
"No need for that. I would be fine even if fate tried to play a prank on me. Worry about yourselves please. Okay bye." Once Gah-Hal finishes his last sentence he closes the door behind him.
Hanna and Hogel are now alone in the room. Hogel looks at the pouches that Gahes left and takes one of it.
"What do you think we will need? Obviously things that give mana since you are a spirit user." Hogel suggests.
"Well yes, but it's not like I need a lot of mana right away. My spirits can do things for me and after we aren't in danger they take back some of mana from me. So... So actually yea... We need mana potions still." Hanna says confused for a second.
"Health potion?" Hogel suggests.
"Yes. This in big amounts." Hanna replies.
"What other type of potions are there? Endurance I suppose? I know there are strength potions too, but do we need them?" Hogel asks.
"Well, we don't know what kind of adventure we could go to, but what if we will be away from here for few days? Do you know how to hunt or what plants are edible?" Hanna asks.
"I don't know much edible plants, but I kind of how to hunt. I just don't like it. Let's keep the purchase of dried meat in mind. What else? Should we take endurance and strength potions?" Hogel suggests.
"Alright fine. Two strength and endurance potions for you. One endurance potion for me. How about scrolls? Some protective ones maybe?" Hanna suggests crossing her arms.
"We will see when we visit the place where these are sold. They might not have exactly everything we want." Hogel says and picks both pouches and puts them into his pocket.
"Which shop we going to first?" Hanna asks.
"The one that sells the belts which will hold all potions stable. If we held them in backpack or sack they could easily break in it. Scrolls could be held in the bag I suppose. Dried meat could go to the sack. No. Instead of sack we will get ourselves just bags. I think it would be more comfortable." Hogel says facing Hanna.
"We should plan on our way through the town. It will be easier for me at least." Hanna says.
"It's good to know what we need in advance. Anyways. Let's go and do what Gahes suggested us." Hogel says and opens the door.
"Bow and sabre will stay here again. I don't think it will be necessary anyway." Hogel says and goes through the door.
Hanna goes behind him taking only a bag with her that they had from their last shopping. Hanna leaves the room and closes the door behind her.
Meanwhile Gah-Hal is still on his way to the guild proudly showing his adventurer's rank. Although wooden rank which is the lowest, but at least it requires quite lot to pass physical exam and have positive result in psychological exam.
He isn't worried about his low rank as he is sure he will climb higher in no time. That's what he joined the guild for of course. As he is reaching the guild he sees two silver ranked adventurers talking near the entrance. They both look experienced basing on their equipment and rank.
It can be seen that their emblem has different symbol on it which means they aren't from this guild. The things they are wearing also isn't something that can be seen from around Glazes.
Whoever they are and whatever they are doing here doesn't matter for Gahes as he normally enters the guild not giving them much attention. He heads towards the quest board to see if there is something new there especially for his rank.
It's been around 30 minutes since he was here last time, so there shouldn't be much to expect. However the board was actually updated and in addition there are two quests for wooden rank. Gahes seeing that quickly jogs over to take a look at the quests.
First is about cleaning a mess left on the old graveyard, because it is said that creatures there can't rest in peace if it's forgotten like that and filled with garbage.
Second is a quest regarding just the investigation of strange disappearances reported in the nearby forest. Villagers have expressed concern over individuals who ventured into the woods and never returned. The guild requests adventurers to uncover the cause of these disappearances. It's mentioned to only find traces and circumstantial evidence of the incident. After that adventurers are requested to report it back to the guild right away without taking further action towards it.
"I can't take two at once. I think I rather the forest one." Gah-Hal says to himself and takes the paper from the board.
Holding the paper in his fingers he goes to the reception nearby and places it on the counter. The receptionist sitting by the counter is the same one as from the last time.
"I would like to take this." Gah-Hal says and turns the paper to receptionist's way.
Receptionist stands from chair and takes the paper taking a look at it. After few seconds she looks at Gahes's necklace and nods. She takes a look into some notebook before nodding again.
"Okay. These disappearances might be a false alarm or something causing it might be too much of a deal. Your job is to check if it's just the villagers that settled themselves somewhere else or if it's something that more advanced people should take care of. I can see it's your first quest so please do whatever it says. Don't take any action if you find anything that you might not be able to take care of." Receptionist says sternly.
"What if I know I can take care of it?" Gah-Hal asks.
"I don't think so. Let's not risk it. Even if you could take care of the problem which could be for example wyvern, we don't know if it doesn't belong to anyone, anything or if it doesn't lead to something bigger." Receptionist says.
"In my opinion. By the time I would find the problem and come back here it could be already too late for anything else to be done. If something like wyvern roamed free in places like this then it wouldn't already wouldn't be our fault for what would happen to it." Gah-Hal says trying to argue.
"I understand your worry, but do what the description says. Guild already approved it so changes can't really be made now. If anything happens then it's going to be on guild and..." Receptionist is interrupted.
"Alright I get it. I still wish to take this." Gah-Hal says pointing at the paper.
"Alright." Receptionist says and writes something down in the notebook and few other papers.
Once she is done writing something down, she rolls the quest paper and hands it to Gahes.
"Try not to lose it on your way. It could help with bureaucracy stuff, okay?" Receptionist says with smile.
She asks for that just so her job can be easier. According to manual, losing this isn't anything bad, but it makes the work in archives last a little longer.
"I won't. Thank you." Gah-Hal thanks raising the rolled paper up a little.
Gah-Hal then goes to the guild exit with the document hidden in his pocket. There was a reward written that the adventurer would get upon completion, but this doesn't matter for Gahes. It's not like 75 bronze coins are much for him.
When he leaves the guild he right away goes to the town exit to go to the location described on the document. He is excited with his first mission. He can't wait to see what's the deal about all the disappearances.
His journey is relatively uneventful so far, with occasional passersby giving little more than a passing glance to the young adventurer on his way. Gah-Hal walks confidently, his newly acquired wooden emblem slightly swinging with his steps.
After walking for quite a while and making sure he is away from sight of other people, he suddenly disappears and appears nearby the forest he was heading to. He has now shortened his way by 25 minutes.
Gah-Hal's mind is filled with thoughts about showing his worth and power, but also thoughts of actually trying to hide his true potency in order to not lose his fun. Not yet at least. He thinks that if people knew what he's capable of then he wouldn't be able to experience things the way he wanted to. After few seconds of filled mind, he shrugs and conitnues going to the forest.
The forest looms ahead, the trees casting shadows and mysteries that intrigue the novice adventurer. As Gah-Hal steps into the woodland, a sense of tranquility envelops him. The rustle of leaves and the distant calls of birds create a natural symphony.
Now all that is left is checking the whole forest which is so big it would take entire day for average person. Checking every tree, root or possible hidden trapdoors that villagers could fall into. Checking every single centimeter to find just one trace. Boring and long thing to do, but Gahes doesn't mind it.