"I'm not following-" Flint said.
Level seven?
Quite the potential?
What was she even talking about?
"You've heard about the adventurer ranking, correct?"
"I have. There are Ten, right?"
"Yes. F, that's the bottom 1-10 LV, E 11-20, D 21-30, C 31-40, B 41-50, A 51-60, AA 61-70, AAA 71-80, S 81-90, SS 91-100." Her grin widened. "Do you know which category you fall into?"
"F?"
"Yes, however it takes at least a Party of 3 B ranked Adventurers to be able to take down a Troll. Or at least a single A class adventurer. Meaning-" She waited-
She waited for Flint to realize-
"I can get a lot stronger-" His heart quivered, nose cleared from the excitement and though he didn't mean to, he might have even teared up a bit… "I see… thank you."
He didn't understand half of the woman implied, but the half he did get gave him enough peace for him to shed a tear or two.
"Of course, that doesn't mean you'd be starting from A rank. No, you'll be starting as everyone else, F; does make me wonder though. why are you only level seven? Have you never killed anything else?"
"What do you mean? Kill as in kill monsters? I've killed hundreds-" Of goblins to be specific.
And even two trolls-
"Really? And that troll too…Then you should have at least been twenty something…. Something doesn't make sense but-" She shrugged. "Oh well. Let's go back to the counter." Her smile was back on track.
"Right-"
"Or would you like to-" Touching the hem of her skirt, she gently lifted it up, showcasing a string of silver and perhaps a bit more- "Have some fun?" Cheeks flushed-
In a second, his face burned hotter than ever- and some words ran across his mind-
The words of that Flack Demon…
"Thank you. But I, must decline. I'm not here to have fun."
Genuinely surprised- "What an honest boy-" Head tilted; face even more flushed- "Makes me want to have you even more now…."
Feigning a smile, Flint somehow opened the door, and ran for his life…
Leaving the panting woman behind.
And though he thought the woman would come right after him or at least pass it off as a joke, she didn't.
She didn't come out.
She didn't say anything either.
Instead-
All Flint heard-
Were moans…
***
"There you have it." She said coldly.
There'd been a change of reception.
The girl Flint had interacted all this time was nowhere to be found.
And in her stead, an elf lady finished the rest of the registration process.
She gave him a card.
A card colored dark red with a single number- 7
"This is my adventurer card?"
Flint had a mask on his face.
A white mask- covering just his eyes and his nose- barely.
The bandages had his head pretty much boxed, so not many would have recognized him, even if they knew him but now even that seemed like a distant possibility.
How'd he procure one?
The guild gave him one- instead of a magic bag.
A bag that he could have used to carry two bags worth of things in a single one…
"Yes. We don't provide a replacement easily, so even if you lose your arm, don't lose that." She said, bland. Voice, completely bland. Not a trace of emotion.
Emarald hair, pink lips, and those ever-piercing eyes-
"I think I'd rather keep both…" He mumbled. "The color?"
He'd seen the cards before.
But both his mother and father's cards were yellow-
Not red.
"The darker the color, the lower your rank. If the number goes up, so does your rank and the color brightens. If you commit a crime, the card turns black and the guild gets notified, so don't go killing random strangers on the street without a good cause."
'So, I can kill as long as I have a good cause?' Slightly awkward. "I'll keep that in mind. Do you know how I can efficiently raise this number?" Flint had already figured out that the higher the number, the stronger the person.
He'd seen his father's card having a 50ish number-
"Fight monsters, go through life threatening situations, something like that. we're not sure ourselves." Nonchalant. "And that'll be-"
Flint pulled out some coins from inside the bandage of his arm- "I believe the other lady already-"
"Yes, but you must keep that to yourself and be aware that this is an exception, we don't provide to all."
"I will…"
"Alright then. Do I need to explain the quests and request system?"
"No, that's fine."
Being the first son of two adventurers, he already knew all that.
Quests, were stuff he could take on his own and would get paid; some were party locked and others, ranked.
The requests were somewhat similar but offered more rewards. Of course, at the cost of his freedom.
If the guild requested him to do something, he had to do it, whether it liked it or not. And if he didn't, there went his license.
In a sense Adventurers were the freest of free, but in another sense, they were just bound dancers forced to dance at the palm of some fatass sitting on the top of the food chain.
But with that over, "Thank you- miss-"
"Frey…" She said curtly. "Don't go killing yourself."
For once, her eyes showed perhaps an iota of emotion; concern.
Flint smiled. "Roger that miss Frey."