While walking towards the guild a few minutes ago, he noticed a tavern that seemed to be the most crowded place in the town. The sweet aroma of hot baked loaves of bread and something else made his stomach growl.
' I'll check on that place later; I still didn't eat my breakfast anyway.' Dean thought as he stood in front of the adventure guild's main door.
It was built using marble stones with beautiful architecture that slightly matched the architecture of the white house, albeit way bigger and more crude.
He saw a few groups of mages and warriors gathered before the guild and discussing. They stared at him for a few seconds, then snickered and turned away.
' Arrogance of people stronger than you ain't surprising.' Dean could obviously feel from the fluctuations of their mana, their apprentice mage identity, and some which were rank one warriors.
' Funny how I can feel people's realms, but my mage identity ends on that point.'
As a wind mage who still didn't buy his gem, he could not use any spells since he wasn't allowed to buy any from the wind church yet.
Even though he could use mana and feel it, all he could do with it was slowly move it inside of his body in a circular manner on a daily basis till he finally refines his skin and organs.
Other than that, he had to wait until he obtained his affinity gem before being called a mage.
When he walked through the front door, his clothes and body were dried up by a hot wave, and he felt warm and satisfied.
The inside pretty much resembled a six-star hotel that only tycoons slightly below Dean's level could stay in.
Dean couldn't believe such a fancy place existed in a world like this.
' Magic surely do wonders.' He chuckled as he looked around.
Just like the hotel, the first thing he saw was the receptionist who was busy dealing with the other adventurers and various mages plus warriors of the churches.
While waiting for someone to attend to him, he roamed around the hall, looked at the painting of old wars and brutal fights hanging on the wall, and checked the marvelous miniature fountain in the middle. The ground was spotless, and he could even see his reflection on the marble tiles.
" Young man."
After dealing with the others, the receptionist waved at him as he walked towards her and directly asked.
" May I know where I can find suitable quests for me?"
The girl with blue hair and eyes immediately inquired, seemingly accustomed to such basic questions.
" Realm?"
"In the process of buying my affinity gem, here is the proof," He simultaneously handed her a copy of the deal he made with Anithia.
The blue-haired girl, clearly the same age as Dean, took the documents, read through them, and nodded her head before pushing them back to him.
" The documents are valid; all the quests are on that board, but make sure to choose missions you can deal with. Many people are overconfident and want to display their talents and strengths only to end up making a mess for the client or even dying themselves." The girl gave casual advice as she pointed at the long, wide board at the end of the room.
Dean nonchalantly thanked her and went to check on the available missions.
' So many, well I guess that is what to be expected from a quest board,' He thought of the novels he used to read and games he used to play and smirked.
As he thought of that, he began to read the quests to find something that was suitable for him.
After reading through various quests that either asked for escorts or to gather a few resources here and there, his eyes finally landed on something to his liking.
' Perfect.'
Disciple of the Gods: bandits have suddenly attacked our small village without reason, our crops have failed, and to make matters even worse, we are constantly harassed and robbed, and our wives are sometimes kidnapped when they feel like it. We will give you anything we can fetch off if you are capable of fending off these bandits.
Special Note: The bandits seem to have taken the village as their base; not afraid of the army or the Disciples of Gods such as yourselves, esteemed Immortal, careful when you deal with them.
Dean took off the quest from the board with a lot of interest, to his deep speculations about his assassin techniques and the third gift that he also needed to test; the mark left on the right corner of the paper went unnoticed by him.
As he was making his way to the receptionist to officially take on the quest, several murmurs were sounding around him, and even Dean had to stop walking absent-mindedly.
' Hope I'm not wasting my time.' Dean thought as he stretched his ears.
" Have you heard? The Grandmaster of the adventure guild is about to break through to the godly realm and join the ranks of the 15 gods. If that happened, we should expect tons of gifts from the guild and even a raise in our salaries and the commissions sent by the clients."
His friend next to him rolled his eyes hearing him, casting a glance of disdain towards him, like a noble looking down upon a peasant that will never have the chance to buy his own gem and walk the path of power.
" You have grown weaker my friend; not even hot news is being delivered to you nowadays."
His friend tilted his head, looking confused by his words, not understanding why his behavior suddenly shifted.
" Tsk, tsk, don't look at me like that; I wanted to say that your information is quite old. The grandmaster is already breaking through as we are currently speaking. To top it off, he even promised to hold a tournament inside of his holy land and select the top ten participants to permanently move next to him and personally be taught by him."
Gulp!
Madness!
" From where did you get this information Thomas?" A passerby who was waiting to register his quest overheard their conversation, and when he learned about the information provided by the man called Thomas, his eyes nearly fell out of their sockets.
" None of your business Derick, Plus, it's not like you have a chance in the tournament anyway; this information is as useless for you as the ant currently eavesdropping on our conversation." The young man called Thomas slapped Dean on the back of his neck as he noticed his current action and warned in a light tone.
" I don't care about what you just heard newbie, but you better take the quest back to its board; if you check the right corner, you will notice a mark on it. The mark means that one of the fire church priests had already set his eyes on it and marked it; taking it will be a direct slap in the face to the fire church and the one who wants the quest. The consequences aren't something a weakling like you can afford to bear."
None could hear what Thomas whispered into Dean's ears, thinking he was mearly threatening the kid as his usual behavior.
Dean on the other hand, didn't react to his words and only pushed his hand off his right shoulder and nonchalantly said," Thanks for the warning; I'll make sure to remember your words."