Ah… I blacked out.
By the time I woke up, I was in a small bedroom. It doesn't look too fancy, and the bed isn't what you call comfy either.
This seemed to be an ugly hotel room. But, where exactly is this?
I was alone in the room, and there didn't seem to be signs of people outside the room. I got up from the bed and took the jacket on the table that was removed from me.
Damn it's dirty now! My jeans are ripped too!!
I must've gone full monkey when fighting Jrake, the tester guy. I didn't care about anything but trying so hard to lift the sword and hit him. I wasn't expecting my clothes to be this badly messed up.
I have to find a new set of suits as well as cleaning this one. My jeans may have been damaged beyond repair, but at least my jacket can still be cleaned.
It's too precious to get dirt on it, since it is one of the only things I brought here.
Where… am I?
I looked around the room and even started walking around. There isn't much furniture inside the room, and there aren't that many items above the table right by the bed.
I waited for anyone to appear, since I'm not brave enough to go outside. And after a few minutes of waiting, Klane came into the room.
"Oh, you woke up!"
Klane, the receptionist lady, suddenly said to me as soon as she saw me sitting on the bed, and I waved my hand at her.
She then began telling me about what happened, that she was scared like hell when I fainted. She immediately called back Jrake to lift me up to this room, which is still inside the Office.
Other than that, the two also called a doctor to find out what happened to me.
"Have you ever… felt like you easily get tired?"
"Emm, yes. All the time, actually."
"Well… I'm sorry to break it to you like this, but… you seem to have a condition with your body, Rize…"
A… condition?
If my biology knowledge is right, it could be leukemia. Since that's where the body couldn't contain many activities. And if it is actually leukemia, I could probably die... Again.
"What condition was it?"
I asked away, hoping that it is not as bad as I think it is.
"It would seem that you have a very... very short amount of magic energy inside of you. Due to that, you can't do many things because of the shortage of magic energy."
M-Magic energy???
Well, first of all, thank god it's not leukemia. On the other hand, it sounds like an even worse situation.
Why can't I just have things easy…?
"The reason you get tired easily is because you lose quite a lot of magic energy. Well, maybe for you it's a lot. But it's because your magic points are too small."
"Magic points?"
She was about to say something, but then she remembered another thing. She then left the room and came back about a minute later.
She brought a round item. From the looks of it, it's a magic glass tool that does some purpose. The round glass was put on its holder, and on the holder is another glass.
"What does it do?"
"Place your hand on the crystal."
I asked her, but she gave me a command instead. I put my hand on top of the crystal. After I placed it, the crystal ball started to faintly glow. Weird symbols can be seen from the bottom magic glass... No, crystal.
Klane was looking at me with questions, and I noticed her confusion.
"What does it say?"
She asked me, but I was very confused. After all, I can't read.
"Uhm, sorry Miss Klane... But I couldn't read..."
"Oh right, far away land."
She lifted the crystal along with the holder and looked at it with her own eyes. As she read the content of the crystal, she let out a long sigh and looked sad.
"The doctor was right..."
She then puts down the magic crystal at the table.
"You have the low magic points condition. A normal adult person should have at least 130 or more magic points at minimum. A normal healthy and strong adult would have over 200. But you… only had 12. That's way below normal."
"Oh..."
Coming to this world, and suddenly I'm sick? So dumbbb...
"Is there some sort of cure… or anything?"
"The only cure is by raising those points."
Oh.
"How do I do that?"
She then looked at the window with a really sorrowful look. This won't be easy.
"The fastest way is by buying magic tools that you can absorb magic from. But those tools are very expensive, and not every tool can merge with you."
"Then..."
"There are also magical potions that can forcefully add your points, but those things have side effects and are not exactly cheap."
I let out a sigh. I guess even my face looked sad, because she immediately shouted at me.
"But it's not hopeless!"
She then sat right next to me on the bed.
"You can train!"
"W-What?"
"There are methods of obtaining magic points. That is by training, exercising, meditating, and other physical methods!"
"Trai...ning...?"
"By training, you basically will improve your physical strength. This will also add to your magic concentration. Exercising, that goes without saying. I believe training has the most impact, though it might be a lot slower than using those items."
"Oh, I see..."
How do I train? What kind of training do I need to do? And how long do I need to train for until I am healthy? Where can I even train…?
I have so many questions, and all of the confusion inside my head was fully drawn on my pretty face. Luckily, Klane noticed this expression of mine.
"Don't worry about training. Me and Jrake can help you out!"
"H-Huh??"
My heart cries…
Not only did they carry me when I collapsed, but now they also wanted to help me to get healthy again.
"Jrake can train you. He usually doesn't really do much besides handling tests and guarding the office. Although he is an adventurer, he doesn't really go into the fields that much. He also said to me that you have a talent that can make you a powerful swordswoman! He will be glad to have someone like you to train with!"
I see…
Jrake is like the adventurers that stayed in the office so that he could manage things as the guard or something. And from Klane's words, Jrake's position is also quite high within the adventurers.
I don't really care about having a talent or not, since training will eventually make someone a master once given enough time. I believe more in dedication instead of mere things like talent. I believe that in time, I can become a good sword user if I just train hard enough.
Then again, why are they doing this?
I looked down on my tiny little fingers. She changed her face from happy to confused very quickly.
"What is it?"
"Why are you helping me?"
I asked her carefully, but Klane simply chuckled.
"Ah, I suppose you just became an adventurer after all, you have no idea what we are!"
She held her chest with her right hand, as if proud. I turned my gaze to her.
"Mercenaries who do missions?"
"That's... not wrong, but 'We' are more than that."
She stood up and looked outside the window. Something emotional is about to come out of her mouth, I can feel it.
"We are like a family.
We took care of one and another. Every day, adventurers walked out of that front door, risking their lives. The only thing that we can do, as the office employees, is to make sure they have the motivation they need. But for you adventurers, that means you guys have to stick together to survive."
That makes sense. Adventurers mostly risk their lives fighting monsters. And for money? Sooo not worth it. Someone has to keep telling them, to motivate them. The kind of motivation they need to stay alive.
"I see."
"We are all family here. Don't bother feeling bad when you need help from us. We can aid you with anything. Think of us as your family, so don't be scared to ask if you need help."
"... Thank you."
I turned my gaze back down.
Ever since coming here I thought I was completely alone, like no one would help me. At least now I have some people to back me up. Let's just hope none of these adventurers will turn on me after I trust them.
She then took the crystal tool thingy and walked to the door.
"After you eat the meal, come to the small arena from before. Jrake wants to see you."
I turned my head towards where her finger was pointing. There was a plate of food on top of the drawer.
What…? That wasn't there before...
Oh yeah, I passed the test. I guess that means I'm a fully fledged Red ranked adventurer after all. Though I still won't be able to do quests since I can't even walk far properly.
Looks like my first objective… is to get healthy.
I took out my card from my pocket and I saw a slight change. The square that was previously black, is now blood red. I can tell that the color square represents the rank.
Not only that, some other changes also happened to the card. The back side also turned red. The top front side behind the symbols is not red. I guess having a rank change is also connected to this card, which makes things automatic. Damn, magic is awesome.
I walked around the room for a few minutes to make sure my body was okay. Once I'm sure my body is feeling rather normal, I walked downstairs to the back arena.
Time to get stronger…