Dirtier.
This place was vastly dirtier and definitely livelier.
Wham! "Another mug!"
Some bard in the corner was playing a flute while rowdy people were chatting, drinking, hitting on the staff- yeah-
"Miss, where's my lunch!!!"
'Isn't it still morning?'
First impressions- adventurers were rowdy people and probably didn't have a good sense of time...
Anyway, without wasting 'my time', I made it to the counter and just asked the guy. "I'd like to become an adventurer. What do I do?"
A rather bland-looking guy. The only thing about him that was a bit unnatural was that there was nothing unusual. Just a pigman. Just a typical pigman, and that was that.
He first stared at me and then at the two cats and then back at me. "Tamer?"
"Summoner who can use swords, spears, and axes." And a bunch of other stuff too because a certain someone wouldn't shut up about learning about everything in case of an emergency….
Sigh.
That certain someone, Derek was dead.
He died while protecting me.
The last of my mother's family.
My uncle…
I never even called the damn guy uncle.
Yet, he died with a smile.
Damn it!
Just remembering made my blood curl.
'That damn asshole….' I was definitely going to get my revenge, that was for sure.
"Um… can you stop glaring…?" The pigman kind of awkwardly smiled. "Ri-right, adventurer's license, right? Just drop three silvers and fill this form. I'll have things ready…"
Oops, my bad. My rage kind of showed up on my face.
Anyway- "Wait three silvers? And I don't need to meet the guild master?"
I for once, didn't know much about adventurers. I knew they hunted monsters in exchange for coins and sometimes volunteered for mercenary work. But that was the extent of my knowledge.
"Yeah, that's the standard fee these days. Though you'd have gotten away with 2 if you'd come a month ago. Right now, things are a bit hectic." He chuckled. "And the guild master? Why'd she meet you? Until you make a name for yourself and become at least Gold-III, she won't be meeting you."
"I see. I'm not familiar with all this you see."
Just a typical form.
My name, my previous and current occupations, and even my specialty and experience.
But that was about all.
The merchant guild's form was much, much more elaborate.
They did have a specific clause though. in case, I died in a copper class mission, they'd pay my family a hefty sum of 30 silvers….
Generous?
'Four months' worth of food, huh?' Too bad I didn't have- wait-
In the end, I decided to put in Amiya's name.
"Ah… in that case. Have a seat?"
One of the staff brought me a chair and I sat down just in the corner of the counter. Another receptionist took over and the pigman just took a seat right next to me, pouring me a drink. "I don't meet rookies often and they don't last either. So, I'll give you some advice…" Grin! "There are five ranks. Copper, Silver, Gold, Ruby, Mithril and Adamantium."
"That's six."
I thought he poured me wine.
But apparently, it was just grape juice… good but not wine.
Sigh… 'Maybe I'll buy a bottle on the way back-' Wait, back to where?
We never agreed to an Inn.
And I never asked where Amiya lived either… 'Could it be that she was right?'
I was an idiot!!?
"Exactly. Copper, your rank, isn't even counted. Meaning, you're not a full-fledged adventurer until you become at least silver. All adventurers have jobs and once they complete jobs their ranks eventually increase, but your reputation is also important. All ranks have three stages- Stage-I is the novice stage and you can guess the rest."
"Yeah, fair enough. Though I don't see any particular reason you had to take time off just to tell me all that."
He chuckled. "What are you saying my lord, it's only natural we'd show courtesy to a knight, such as yourself." He made a noble vow while actually sitting, what a douche.
'But I don't remember saying so…?' Oh wait, I did fill in the form and-
I also chuckled. "Oh please. I may be a knight but a wandering one. Not much authority nor money. My skills are the only thing I still have." I looked down, pretending. "War takes away everything, my friend."
"Yeah…" He also had a similar smile and look.
It was odd.
Though pretending, I wasn't necessarily lying.
I did lose everything in this petty war.
Everything.
So, at the end of the day, I did want someone I could talk with.
Maybe that's why I told him I had nothing?
Who knows.
Anyway- "Here's a gold. I expect you to return 5 silvers."
"Not seven?"
"Well, the drink was nice and you did come out of your way just to tell me stuff. Of course, you were expecting something, right?"
A silver for a drink like this was extravagant and so was a tip.
However-
Finally, he let out another type of smile- the business type; PR grin. "You know your stuff, man."
'Indeed, I do.' It was always a good idea to be friendly with some specific people, so you could exploit them later.
As much as I hated my brother Juerd for it, I guess I did still learn this shitty technique from him.
Anyway, with all that done, they actually gave me a badge with some engravings. A copper badge marked 'I'. These people worked fast.
"You can pretty much use that as an identification card no matter where you go as long as the city has a guild. The quest board's over there and good luck."
He gave me a nice big smirk and I followed back with a grin of my own.
'Well, that went a lot smoother than I thought…'
Without any worries, I went over to the quest board and checked the quests out.
Apparently, an adventurer could take quests one rank below and three ranks above them. But with a catch, if they failed a quest above their rank, then they'd have to pay a fee of roughly ten percent of the original reward. Adventurers were also required to just complete any quest with the exception of the Mithril and Adamantium quests, in under two days.
The conditions weren't favorable for a newbie…
Sure didn't stop me though.
I took three quests.
All three of them were Gold rank quests.
And all three of the quests were just plain 'slay a monster that only appears in the dead of the night'- type.
Why?
Well, why not? I didn't need any sleep and I wanted to test out my proper strengths anyway.
If things went south, there was always the option to just run away, anyway.
People in the Merchant guild stared quite a lot.
People in the adventurer guild though, didn't really care.
They just ate, drank, and chatted away.
Sigh- sometimes, I wished to live like that too… a life without worries.
But-
I had a revenge to look forward to. And I certainly wasn't going to stop till then.