The next day we left the inn and headed to the Adventurers Guild.
We walked around the city a while before we got to a large building with a strange insignia on it. A shield with a sword and an axe crossed on it. This was the sign of the Adventurers Guild. "That's the building." I said and pointed.
"Wow! This is really more than expected." Nick said.
"Yes." I said as we looked around the beautiful city.
"This is the most technologically advanced and wealthiest city on this continent. There are amazing Dwarven technology everywhere. The buildings, the roads, infrastructures and other buildings."
"And there are people from every race here." Grey said.
"Almost every race. Fairies tend not to stray too far from their home. They won't be seen so easily on the surface."
"That's true." Jade added.
"Let's go in." Then we walked into the building.
Upon entry, the unfamiliar scene made my four companions gasp as they looked around the guild hall.
It was loud and busy. On one corner, adventurers sat down around tables drinking and discussing. And on the other corner, five receptionist stood behind a large desk attending to adventurers and other people who came to complain about various things.
We walked towards the reception desk.
Then as an adventurer left the desk, a receptionist became free, Jade walked up to the reception desk. "Good day." She said to a female receptionist.
"Good day." The receptionist responded. "How may I help you?" She asked.
"We are here to register as adventurers."
"Oh! Welcome. My name is Tina." Tina was dressed in what looked like a uniform for their staff. A black shirt and black trousers.
"Hello Tina." Jade replied.
"Hello. First is the fee. To register, you will have to pay one thousand bronze coins or one silver coin per head."
"One silver coin..." I took out a storage pouch, removed five silver coins from the pouch and paid Tina.
"Payment received." Tina gave each of us a form. "Fill these forms and get back to me." She said.
The forms, asked us little things like race, name, age, gender and others. We filled the forms and returned it to Tina.
"Forms received. Follow me please." She said, then she led us to a room at the back. It was a small room. Empty except for a man that sat next to a table. The table had a crystal ball perched on a fluffy red pillow. The man was also dressed in the same uniform as Tina, so I assumed he was also a staff at the guild.
"These are the new adventurers that just registered." Tina said to the man in the room.
"Oh!" The man exclaimed. "Here." He said pointing to the crystal ball on the table. "Please put your hand on the mana crystal and pour a little bit of your mana into it."
Grey went first. He touched the ball and poured mana into it. The ball started to glow yellow.
"Ohh. You all aren't beginners then." The man said. "The colour tells us what realm you are. Yellow for Innate Realm. And the brightness tells us what stage."
He looked up at Grey. "You are a C rank adventurer since you are in the Final Innate Realm."
Nick went next, then Ace, then Jade. The result was the same for all of them. Yellow colour, around the same brightness. Then I went next. I touched the ball and poured mana into it. The ball shone the same yellow colour. But something was different. It was brighter.
"Wow! Wh—what's happening?!!" The man exclaimed as he stared at the ball with confusion written all over his face. "Th—This is the brightest I have ever seen a mana crystal glow before." He said.
I pulled my hand away from the crystal and said. "It's the same as them right? C rank. I probably just poured too much mana into it!"
"It doesn't matter how much mana you pour," The man said. "it perfectly measures ones mana according to their realm of power."
"Oh." Of course I already knew that. But it would have been a bad idea if we were to gain attention now.
"What's next?" I asked. We were on a mission that required us to remain inconspicuous. Attention is the last thing we need.
"Hmmhm." The man cleared his throat and said.
"That's all. You just need to receive your emblems."
"Follow me." Tina said. She led us back to the reception hall. "Your registration is complete. These, are your emblems." She handed us Bronze emblems with the guild insignia carved on it. "They represent your identity as an adventurer," She said. "and also your rank. The emblems are Tin, Iron, Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Titanium, Tungsten, Diamond and Adamantium, ranks F to X respectively."
"That wall over there." Tina pointed to her right. "That is called a quest wall. You can now take quests from any Adventurers Guild in the world. Individually, adventurers can take quests according to their ranks while as a party, you can take quests one rank higher than the rank of your strongest party members."
"Adventurers," Tina continued. "are divided into five original job classes. These are Knights, Vanguards, Magicians, Assassins and Healers. You pick the job class that best suits your fighting style. There are the special job classes too. But that is for people who have already mastered two or more of the original classes. That is all."
"Thank you." Jade said. "Also, we want to sign up for an expedition."
"Expedition?" Tina asked. She must have felt surprised that a newly registered party is signing for a mission this quickly.
"Yes." Jade answered her.
"Well you aren't beginners so I guess the guild can allow it. We allow expeditions to the Margrave Empire, the Salvador Federation, Belaruth Kingdom and even the Elven Empire."
"We would like an expedition to the dungeon."
"Dungeon? Uhm okay. The guild will have to ask your party to bring back some items from your expedition. When adventurers go to the dungeon, they are required to bring back some things for the guild. This is the list for a standard C rank party." Tina passed a sheet of paper to Jade.
"Alright." Jade replied.
"How long do you plan on staying in the dungeon?" Tina asked.
"Three months."
"Okay. Then will you use our teleportation gate? Or..."
"Yes."
"Okay. We will have to fill some paperwork first though."
Ten minutes later. We had filled out all the necessary paperwork. Then Tina led us to a separate room in the back. The room was bigger than the previous one. The room had a large platform in the middle with a peculiar magic circle etched into it. There were three men in the room.
*Magic Circle: A circular boundary with special markings and runes that marks the area which a particular magic spell affects. The colour matches that of the spell casted.*
"Oh. We have visitors. Hello Tina." The first man said laughing.
"We are not here to visit Peter." Tina countered.
"He knows Tina, he just likes to tease." The second man said. "So where are they going?"
"Take them as close to the dungeon as you can." Tina said.
"The Blue Lake City then. The city is in the Elven Empire, and only a day from the dungeon. Alright. Everyone get on the magic circle." Peter said.
The two men stood on opposite sides of the platform and started to cast a spell. "We call on our God of Light. Light our path. Connect the gates. Greater Teleportation!"
*Greater Teleportation
4th Tier Teleportation Magic.*
The magic circle began to glow and then... They were gone.
*
*
In what seemed like an instant, we were in another room, but standing on a platform with the same peculiar looking magic circle.
"Welcome." An woman said to us. We looked down to her. An elf. I thought. She had a beautiful face, long blonde hair and long, pointy ears.
"We have been notified of your arrival." The woman said. She led us out of the room. "This is one of the branches of the Adventurers Guild in the Elven Empire."
She took us out to the reception hall. " Welcome to the Blue Lake City." She said. "We have provided you with lodgings in the city. You can begin you travels whenever you are ready."
"Thank you." Jade said. "We will leave for the dungeon tomorrow."
We got to the inn set aside for adventurers. Unlike Glavis, this city was not very advanced. It was an Elven city.
It was a city that seemed like a forest. There were houses on trees and trees in houses. But, the city was just as lively as Novaland, but filled with adventurers.
As we entered the inn and headed up to their rooms, we saw adventurers of all four races. Elves, Giants, Humans and Dwarves.
"I didn't know Dwarves were adventurers too." Ace said.
"They are." I said "Dwarves may not like conflict but that doesn't mean they don't have know how to fight. They are not just engineers and smiths. They are also warriors. Though, not all the dwarves in this city are adventurers. Some are from the Engineers Guild while some are from the Merchants Guild."
"Dwarves from those guilds" I continued. "are mainly here for valuable resources like magic ores, metal ores, medicinal plants, and other rare things like that. Most of those things are found in condensed mana zones. One of those zones is the dungeon."
*Magic Ore: A rock mined from condensed mana zones which when mixed with metal ores has the ability to form special metals used to forge the highest grade of weapons. It's value is second to that of the mana crystal.*
"That reminds me," Jade said. "Back at the Guild, those men used a fourth tier magic to teleport us. Wasn't fourth tier magic something only magicians in final stage of the demon realm can use?"
"Yes." I replied.
"Then were those men really that powerful? Were they the high ranking adventurers?"
"No, no. Those men were just part of the guild's staff. They were also wearing the same uniforms as Tina."
"Then how did they use a fourth tier magic?"
"They weren't the ones who cast it. Magic is complicated. But simply, they only supplied mana to the magic that had already been cast. Remember the platform we stood on already had a magic circle etched on it."
"Yes." She answered.
"The magic was set already. All they did was power it. It takes a lot of mana to teleport, so they probably switch out the workers after every use. Or else, the workers would be completely drained of their mana. This is how teleportation gates work. If the gate required magicians in the final demon realm, then the gates would only be used by very few people."
"Oh! That makes sense. Nick, did you know this?"
"Not really." Nick said. "But it will make for an interesting research subject back when we get home."
"You and your research." Ace teased.
"We better get some rest." I said. "Our adventure begins tomorrow."
We all went to our rooms to rest. The next day was going to be the start of our adventure.