Upon hearing the mind blowing number, the quill in the receptionist's hand drops to the desk.
"350! Are you serious?! Wait, you must have been with a large party, right?"
Smiling now she has finally seen a guild receptionist react like this for the first time, Astaria corrects her.
"It would have been nice if I did have a party at the time, but I was alone so killed them all solo."
Hearing Astaria's revelation, the receptionist just stares at her in shock.
After enjoying the situation, Astaria decides to give the receptionist a friendly warning.
"Just so you know, once the other immortal warriors get used to fighting in this world, there will be many more people like me bringing large sums of subjugation proof, so prepare yourself."
Choosing to not think about it since her brain is going blank, the receptionist just returns to filling out the document with an emotionless expression.
With a sigh, she hands over a copper plate with Astaria's details on it. With an expression showing her confusion, the receptionist poses Astaria a question.
"By the way, why is your race unknown?"
Hearing this Ben looks over Astaria's shoulder, examining the new copper guild plate in her hand.
"Huh? Oh! I completely forgot about that. Well, before I descended the gods decided to do something to my body, so I am just as clueless as you. All I know is I'm slightly more agile than most and have a high magic affinity."
With a tilt of her head, the receptionist speculates.
"I see… that sure is strange. Maybe they blessed you and changed you into some sort of ancient race similar to the legendary high elves?"
With a thoughtful expression, Astaria nods at the suggestion.
"Maybe, but only time will tell."
"Can I sell some of what I looted from the goblins?"
Astaria asks after a slight pause.
With a hint of anticipation, the receptionist calls out while quickly walking towards the back room.
"Ah, yes, of course! One second please."
Disappearing into the back room behind the reception desk, the receptionist returns with 2 of her colleagues each carrying a large wooden tray.
"Can you please place your items on the trays please?"
Nodding, Astaria opens up her inventory and starts dropping the mountain of goblin ears onto the tray, easily filling the 3 trays up. After the first tray had been filled, one of the receptionists takes it into the back room, only to return with another empty tray.
After all of the ears are handed over, Astaria looks through the remaining loot in her inventory, not finding anything else to sell to the guild.
With a nod of her head, she speaks up.
"That's all the items. The rest of my loot I will give to a merchant I know. To sell on my behalf."
Hearing this the 2 other receptionists remove the filled trays and return to the back room to start processing the mountain of ears.
"Are you sure? The guild will give you a decent price for things you want to sell?"
Shaking her head, Astaria replies.
"Thank you for the offer, but the merchant who I am working with will be selling to the immortal warriors directly. It's part of our effort to improve the capability of others like us. I hope you can understand."
Smiling with the new revelation about the person in front of her, the receptionist speaks up.
"It will be a few moments for us to process all of the items you have brought, so if you don't want to stand, please feel free to make yourself comfortable in the bar."
Nodding, Astaria walks over and sits down at one of the tables followed by Ben.
"I didn't realise that you were trying to improve other players just yet?" Ben inquires, a slight look of confusion covering his face.
"Heh, of course not. I needed a decent excuse to explain that I will be selling my stuff where I can get a much better price. Besides, a handful of poor-quality weapons will only hinder players."
Nodding in understanding, Ben continues to talk with Astaria while waiting for the receptionists to finish processing the ears.
After around 10 minutes the receptionist comes over holding a tray with a small pouch on it.
"Thank you for waiting, here is your reward money of 4 gold and 6 silvers exactly. 3 gold and 5 silvers are from the proof, while the additional 1 gold, 1 silver is from completing the open Goblin subjugation quest 11 times."
[Adventurers Guild Quest: Goblin extermination (Complete)]
[Quest Description: Kill 30 goblins and hand the proof of subjugation to the Adventurers Guild]
[Rewards: 1 silver, 30 Temple Contribution Points, 30 Guild Contribution Points, 1 Alennos Kingdom Contribution point, 1 Personal Fame]
[Adventurers Guild Quest: Goblin extermination (Complete)]
…
…
[ {New} Adventurers Guild Quest: Promotion to Iron rank (ongoing)]
[Quest Description: Speak to an Adventurers Guild receptionist about ranking up to Iron rank]
[Rewards: Iron Rank Guild Tag, 5 Personal Fame]
Accepting the bag with a smile and a word of thanks, Astaria puts it into her inventory. As she stands up, the receptionist calls out to her.
"Oh, before you go, since you are Lv 10 and have successfully finished over 10 quests, you have completed the requirements to become an Iron rank adventurer. Please come to the reception desk so I can process your rank up."
Internally sighing that she is taking more time than originally had planned, Astaria follows the receptionist and places her new adventurer's tag on the desk. After taking the tag the receptionist starts operating a magical imprinting device, shortly handing over a new Iron tag after a minute.
Astaria gives the receptionist a smile while accepting the tag.
"Thank you."
Politely bowing towards her, the receptionist replies.
"You're welcome, if that is all we hope to see you soon."
Returning the greeting, Astaria walks out of the guild with Ben.
"Damn man, that feels like so much money compared to what I managed to make! I barely managed to scrape together 8 silvers!"
Smiling at the comment, Astaria explains.
"Well, goblins are the strongest enemies in the kingdom with the exception of the occasional roaming bear, and given that they attack people on the road they have quite the bounty on them."
With his fist resting on his chin, Ben sinks into thought.
"Hmm, that makes sense. So that's why there is such a big bounty on the goblin boss. I assume once he is killed the nearby goblins will become disorganised or something, making it safer until it respawns?"
Astaria gave a nod in affirmation.
"Exactly. In the past I remember that there was a player who stumbled upon the bounty poster while investigating the higher ranked boards in the guild. He managed to gather a decent number of players and killed the boss by the second day after the official release. He thankfully had the help of a few early access players like us otherwise his party would have been completely wiped."
Ben shrugs his shoulders.
"Man, that's quite impressive given they didn't have any advantages like us. Anyway, next up is getting you a gear upgrade, right?"
Nodding, Astaria answers.
"Yes, I need a lot. How about you, judging by your bow, you are already equipped?"
Ben shakes his head, raising an arm to show off the lack of equipment.
"Almost, I still need some gloves."
Leading the way towards the main crafting street, Astaria notices that there are a lot more players around, the majority look like they bought the Forerunner Edition discernible due to the appearance of their equipment that can only be obtained from the costume box at this time, while the rest the being adventurous Deluxe Edition players who rushed to Haligrad.
Players, unlike the NPC's, have tags above their heads. The tags only display a person's name, however, for those who like to show off, they can add some of their personal information such as level, race, and class. A player's tag can also be hidden from others either by using specific items or covering 95% of the body.
Upon entering the crafting street, various sounds unique to the area ring out. The noise of hammers hitting steel echoed alongside the sounds of wood being cut with a saw echo out of the workshops. As they make their way through the street, the heat from the forges hits them they pass while the occasional gust of wind carries dust and sand into their faces.
After making it to the other end of the street, they turn down a specific narrow alley that remains quite inconspicuous. With practiced steps, Astaria enters through a fairly well-maintained wooden door that caused a small bell to chime out when opened.
Entering the shop, Astaria can see it's fairly small with various types of swords lining the right wall, while the left side is partially covered with armour, spears, and polearms.
Hearing that the blacksmith is still hammering away, apparently oblivious to his new customers, Astaria gestures for Ben to wait for a moment and makes her way behind the counter and through the door that is covered by a cloth. This action causes Ben to raise an eyebrow and lean by the door with his arms folded.
Upon entering the forge, Astaria is hit by a wave of heat as she looks around. The familiar setup is as expected, well organised. A large furnace sits against the right wall, with an anvil and barrel of oil next to it. The walls are covered by neatly arranged tools, and the bench is kept tidy.
Currently sitting at the anvil is, as most could imagine in a hard-to-find shop, an old dwarf who is stoically hammering a sword's blade that is brightly glowing orange. His long, dark hair is braided, tied together at the end with an ornate black bead, while his stout body is well built with bulging muscles.
Spotting the stall in front of the dwarf, Astaria walks over and sits down, watching intently.