Once I reached the end of the line, the receptionist that was waiting for me behind the counter turned to me and smiled. As I walked up to the counter, I noticed all of the receptionists near me were wearing the same type of uniform. They wore some sort of green suit vest with a white undershirt. The receptionist in front of me, a human woman with bright green eyes, had short auburn hair that barely reached her shoulders.
"Welcome to the adventurers' guild! I don't recognize you, so are you perhaps here to register as an adventurer?" The receptionist asked.
"Yes," I told her, "Although I don't want my status to be recorded by the guild."
"Are you sure?" The receptionist asked as her eyes widened, "You'll have to start at rank F and work your way up. Without your level or rank to go by, your merits and accomplishments will be the only things we can use to evaluate your skill level."
"That's fine by me," I told her, "So how does this work?"
"Usually, we would use the status plate to read your status and record the information that we needed," The receptionist said, "In your case, I'll simply ask the most basic questions we need. If you hear anything you don't want to answer, you can simply tell me to skip the question and move onto the next. Because you don't want to use a status plate, I'll be leaving both your level and rank empty. Is that alright with you?"
"Absolutely. Ask away," I told her. The receptionist nodded, then began to fumble underneath her counter. A moment later, she pulled a sheet of paper from underneath her and placed it on the counter. She also brought a pen from underneath.
Then, after she flattened both and began to hover the pen over the paper, she turned back to me and began to ask me questions.
"First, your name?" She asked.
"Arthur Aureys," I told her. She looked up to me and cocked her head, "Here. I'll show you how to spell it."
After helping the receptionist spell out my name, she moved onto the next.
"Age?"
"Eighteen," I told her, hoping I was close enough to the actual age. I was technically less than one year old, but my face told me I was a young adult, so I went based off of my appearance. The receptionist nodded, then dotted my age down. She turned back to me, then continued the questioning.
"Next, class," The receptionist said. I looked at her in confusion. The receptionist noticed my expression and began to explain the question. She pulled out another small paper from underneath her desk and handed it to me, "Let me explain. A class is what we use to determine how best to categorize you based on the weapons, skills, or spells you use to fight. Here's a list of the ones we've been using."
I looked to the paper she handed me and began reading the options. The list was mostly filled with simple terms and classes that were easy to understand. Most of them were self explanatory, such as 'swordsman' or 'mage', while a few others were more complicated. Some like 'saint' or 'bloodhunter' were a little harder to understand. Then, near the bottom of the list, was a class that seemed to call to me.
"What is the Dragon Rider class?" I asked her. The receptionist smiled, then answered my question.
"The Dragon Rider class is a unique class. Adventurers with that class are capable of taming dragons and riding them as mounts, while still having adequate strength without them. However, because of the rarity of dragons, this guild has never seen anybody with that class."
"Can I have it?" I asked.
"You'd have to prove that you are capable of taming a dragon," The receptionist chuckled, "come back when you have one."
"I do," I sighed as I looked to the ground. I turned to search for Icarus, but then quickly noticed his absence. Icarus wasn't anywhere near me, which was unusual considering how much he liked to follow me. I looked to the twins, who were busy with their own registrations, and tapped their shoulders. They looked to me, confused, "Have you seen Icarus?"
"Icarus?" Jonathan echoed. He looked to my feet, confused. Then, after noticing the absence of my dragon, his eyes widened, "Shit! That can't be good!"
"I'm sorry, what is going on?" The receptionist near me said, confused, as she tried to pipe into our conversation.
"My dragon. He's gone missing," I told her as I turned back to her. Then I turned away and began to search the room by arching my gaze over the heads of the people around me. I searched for a solid ten seconds, but still couldn't see anything. I turned back to the receptionist, stole the paper from her hands, then began to move through the crowd, "I'll come back in a few minutes!"
"Sir?" She yelled as I turned away from her. I continued to push my way through the crowd, cutting my way through like a sword cutting through wind. As I pushed my way through, several adventurers called out to me in anger, but I ignored all of them.
"Icarus?" I yelled out as I tried to force my voice throughout the guildhall. Then, from the other side of the room, I heard a loud screech ring out. The screech was like the call of a bird, but a bit more fierce and deep. I instantly knew it was Icarus's voice calling out for help. I immediately turned toward the source of the noise, then dashed forward.
Icarus's calls for help continued to ring from the other side of the room, but there was another voice that came with it.
"Quiet down, you oversized lizard!" A voice ordered. When I heard it, I ran even faster. Then, after finally moving away from the loud crowd, I dashed forward again. My speed, which was much faster than most humans were capable of, brought me to the other side of the room in a manner of a few seconds.
Once I had finally arrived, I stopped my advance and looked to the source of the noise. My eyes instantly fell upon a group near the guildhall's entrance. I recognized a few of them as adventurers by their armor and weapons, but two of them wore suits and carried clipboards in their hands.
"You see! A dragon!" One of the voices said. I looked to the voice, then found a tall adventurer with a large red animal in his hands, "That means I can be promoted to the 'Advanced Beast Tamer' class, right?"
The adventurer was looking to the two people in suits while he held Icarus in his hands. Icarus, on the other hand, was bound with rope. His legs and wings were strapped to his body and his mouth was muzzled. Seeing his state, I felt my entire chest drop. I was enraged.
"Sir Cameron, a beast tamer is someone capable of controlling their beasts," One of the suits told the adventurer, "While it's true that dragons have been considered extinct for ages, and this discover alone will prove to be significant enough to change the history books, it doesn't appear that you have control over it. If you'd like, you can sell it to us."
"Sell it?" Cameron, the adventurer, scoffed, "Do you know how hard I worked to get this thing?"
"Hard?" I felt myself ask. My tone was full of anger. The group turned to me, startled by my voice. Cameron's party and the other suit stepped forward, moving between Cameron and myself. I stepped forward, my eyes trained on Cameron. Icarus also turned to me, then began thrashing back and forth even harder, "You didn't do anything, you worm. That's my dragon. Hand him over before you find your pathetic life at an end."
Cameron stood up, Icarus still tight between his arm and his chest as he carried him like a lost pup. He looked to me and scoffed.
"You'd dare insult an A ranked adventurer?" Cameron asked. Then, before I could say anything, the suit that was talking to Cameron talked.
"Young Adventurer, intervening in the matters of an A ranked adventurer will only lead to misfortune," The suit said, "Turn around before the guild finds reason to punish you."
"Did you not hear me?" I said, my voice rising to a yell, "Unhand Icarus or die!"
"Insults, again," Cameron sighed. His eyes went to my clothes, then back to my face. He smirked and turned to the suit, "Why don't we return to our business, Alfred? You said something about purchasing this dragon?"
"Hey!" I yelled. Cameron and Alfred turned back to me, annoyed.
"Stop, kid," Cameron said as he put Icarus on the ground. Icarus began to struggle against his bonds, but he couldn't do anything because of the bonds around his feet. Cameron turned back to me, then unsheathed his sword. As Cameron unsheathed his weapon, the others in his party did the same. Soon, seven people were staring at me with their weapons drawn. Cameron chuckled, "Before you get hurt."
I turned to the suits, who were staring at me with varying expressions. The younger suit, the one not talking to Cameron, looked at me with contempt. The older one, however, seemed to be staring at me with curiosity.
I turned back to Cameron, realizing the situation wasn't playing out in my favor, and quickly appraised him.
﹃
Cameron Smith
Race: Human
Level: 20
HP: 110
MP: 108
AC: 120
DMG: 100 (+)
Rank: A
Equipped: Holy Sword (Rank B)
﹄
"I see," I sighed as I took a deep breathe. Then, after I calmed down, I felt a surge of confidence arise from within me. I pointed to Alfred and began to yell, "You! You said something about this dimwit being unable to control the dragon, didn't you?"
"Dimwit?" Cameron gasped under his breathe.
"I did," Alfred said, ignoring Cameron's reaction. Alfred put his hands behind his back and turned his whole body to me, intrigued. I nodded, then pointed to Icarus.
"Then I will prove that dragon is mine," I told Alfred, "That bug stole him from me, so all you need to do is untie his bonds. Do that, and you'll see that I'm telling the truth."