"The adventurer card allows you get into most guild-recognized areas without having to pay or undergo any searches most of the time, you may still be stopped and searched if a guard thinks that you may be harbouring ill intent, carrying illegal substances, affiliated with an enemy of the empire, and a few more reasons."
"The card shows your name, the date of it's issue, and your adventurer rank."
"The adventurers are divided into 5 ranks, from the lowest to the highest, the ranks are: Black, Blue, White, Purple, and Red. These signify the permissions and levels of missions that you can take."
"For an example, black rank adventurers can only take on missions from the guild, and have no permissions, while white rank adventurers can ask the guild for information, ask the guild to put out a notice, start a guild-funded expedition, and a few more things."
"Red rank adventurers are not restricted on any guild-recognized area, but it is very hard to climb to the top, there are only 14 red rank adventurers at the moment you know?" The woman ended her speech with a smile.
"Thank you for your information." Reed spoke in a nonchalant tone as if he had already known all of what he just heard.
"No problem, if you like, I can conduct a talent and affinity check for an additional 5 gold." The woman offered.
"No thank you, but could you point me to the nearest dungeon?" Reed asked politely.
"Suit yourself." The woman shrugged. "The dungeon's three kilometres north, don't get yourself killed."
...
After leaving the guild, Reed went and got himself a place to stay, for 10 silver a day, he booked it for two days.
Sitting on the bed, he perused the recent additions to his inventory.
[9 Gold coins, 79 Silver coins, 3 water bottles, 2 packs of compressed biscuits]
Very simple, very effective.
He looked at the sky through the window, noting that it was late afternoon.
'Around 4 o clock, a bit late to go to the dungeon. I'll just explore the city, but first, lunch.'
...
Being an avid cook, he was not satisfied with what he found in the cities restaurants, but with little choice he sated his stomach.
In his walk around a part of the city he learned it's name: D'ram (The-ra-um)
Apparently named after the dwarven adventurer who discovered the dungeon to the north, which was 700 years ago.
He also located a few restaurants and inns, a library, two schools, and 7 stores, 5 general, 1 weapon, and 1 containing items of a magical nature.
All in all, a small city, with a population of roughly 60-70,000 inhabitants, near the edge of the empire. This was due to the fact that the dungeon was only tier 4.
All of the major cities had at least 2 tier 6 or above dungeons within a ten kilometre range from the city walls.
The capital city of the empire was between 1 tier 7, 2 tier 8, and 1 tier 9 dungeon, each of them less than a hundred kilometres from the city, which has a population of over 5,000,000 inhabitants, only because entry is restricted, and people below a certain wealth line simply cannot live there.
When the sun had set, Reed retraced his steps to reach the library.
Looking at the plain wooden signboard, he sighed.
'This translation thing is amazing.'
He went inside, attracting the attention of a man with greying hair.
"You can't borrow the books, other than that, feel free to spend all the time you need, we close at 10:30." He said, then turned back to his book.
"Can you let me know when it hits 9?" Reed asked the man, who simply nodded, not diverting his attention.
'Mana-driven clocks and lights, who would have thought?' Reed searched the shelves, before picking out a few he thought important, and sitting down on a table setting a small bundle that he had been carrying to the side.
[Basics of Magic]
[Imperial history: Part 1]
[Book of Monsters]
[Plants and poisons]
[The book of plants]
Looking at his selection, he picked up [Basics of Magic] and pushed away the others for the moment.
'History and knowledge later, additional power is important.'
The book was approximately 200 pages thick He opened the first page and began to read.
It described mana, and what it was, it's applications, and a small bit of history, before getting into what he wanted.
It gave him instructions on how to complete the first stage of mana strengthening, Core Condensation, complete with body diagrams, while speaking about what it meant for his body to hold a mana core, which Reed read with great concentration.
It gave him the basics of mana control, and it's uses.
Then it spoke about the second stage of Body Refining, which Reed just skimmed over using pure mana to flush and strengthen his physical form using mana.
It vaguely mentioned the third stage of Soul Cleansing, with no detail on how to achieve it.
Afterwards, it spoke of the various types of magic and their uses, their counters, and their side-effects.
Once out of information, it spoke about legends of spirits and great feats of magic, like storm-calling, and resurrection.
Reed placed the book down and stood up, picking up all the books he had chosen and placing them back into their original locations. He picked up his bundle, and made for the exit.
"There's 12 minutes left." The librarian said.
"Thank you for your time." Reed nodded, and left.
...
Back in his room he started to follow the steps given by the book to reach the first stage of mana strengthening.
After a minute of silence, he started to feel the mana particles in the air, and started to pull them inwards, however, instead of directly absorbing them like the book instructed, he started to move them around his body in a counter-clockwise motion, pulling in more and more particles as the movement gained momentum.
A few minutes later, when he sensed the particles were too many for him to control, he started pulling them inwards, starting the core formation.
He maintained the circular movement even inside his body as the particles entered through his left shoulder, ran across his chest down his right arm into his thigh, and up his left thigh and into the middle of his ribcage, where the rapidly spinning mana started to condense.
Three minutes later, the condensation was complete.
[You have broken through to Tier 3]
He looked at the prompt in front of him.
'Not bad for the first day.'