Echoes of mugs slamming onto tables shook the inside of the adventurer's guild. Heads turned to the source of the ruckus that was made. The source was a young man, looking to be the age of 19-20, his short brown hair was unkempt, a big goofy grin was painted onto his face. Countless glares of annoyance were shot at him. His reaction was against their expectations as he kept his stride as if nothing affected him. However, his companion a white haired demi-human woman who followed a short distance behind him, shrunk her body so as to not be seen.
"Tch, that little brat thinks he can waltz in here without a care in the world."
"Don't mind him, this'll be the last time we'll see him."
"Hah? What makes you think that?"
"Well… That confidence he has, it'll get him killed if he becomes an adventurer."
"And if he doesn't become one, well he just ticked off every adventurer in this place."
"Haha, yeah yer right, what a poor bastard."
The constant murmurs shot throughout, none entered the ears of Lucian. The words danced around Fei's mind.
"Y'know the biggest mistake he just made? Bringing a filthy demi-human with him! She'll just get him killed with her useless magic!" A stifled laugh could be heard amongst the crowd. "Hey, who wants to bet he'll abandon her in a week?"
"A week? That's hilarious, take a look at her! I'll bet a few days!"
"Hey, are you okay?" A concerned frown replaced Lucian's grin, his eyebrows furrowed as he looked at Fei. Her complexion was paler than normal, combined with her quickened breathing and lowered ears screamed that something was bothering her.
"I'm, I'm fine." Fei replied. If he could hear what was being said, he'd bring her back when there were less people. "I'm fine… Just nervous…" Averting her eyes from Lucian's gaze, she hoped he wouldn't push the subject further.
"If you say so…" Lucian mumbled before taking another step forward. Due to him not looking where he was going, he ran face first into a man who wore bulky platemail armor. Lucian was promptly sent back by the collision, meanwhile the man stood there as if nothing happened. "Ouch… Sorry about that!" Lucian apologized whilst scratching the back of his head.
"Watch where you're going." The man who stood over a head taller than him, commented without looking back.
"Yeah… sorry."
"Damn kids." He mumbled under his breath.
"Man…" Lucian sighed under his breath. The sudden awareness slapped him across his face, the glares that jabbed at him and the man he ran into clearly being annoyed caused his skin to prickle. 'I Really messed up already, huh?'
"Just hang in there. Once we're signed up and we accept a request we'll be out of here, okay?" Lucian whispered to Fei who was clearly bothered by everything.
"Okay…"
Seeing her nod, Lucian gave her a smile before facing the front again.
Over ten minutes had passed, the duo in front of them didn't even move an inch. Tapping his foot impatiently, Lucian leaned towards his right to see what was going on. A tanned elf stood there with her arms crossed as she talked to the receptionist, who was an elven man wearing the guild's staff uniform.
"Lady Bronya, Sir Roth, thank you for finishing the request! Here is your reward." The elven receptionist exclaimed as a young woman who wore a similar uniform to him brought two medium-sized sacks to the counter. "20 silvers and half the materials from the monsters you've slain as we agreed upon."
"Thanks." The tanned elf thanked him. She easily grabbed the sack that the woman gave her. Due to how easily she lifted it, the woman was shocked she was struggling to keep a straight face whilst lifting them.
"Thank you. Hm… looks like we got everything." The tall man said after taking a quick peek.
"Great."
"Have a great day!" The receptionist exclaimed as the two walked off. "Hello! How can I help you?"
"Hello! We're here to sign up to become adventurers!" Lucian responded while pointing to himself, then to Fei. "Ah, right our ids." He continued while fumbling in his pants' pocket, moments later he pulled out 2 copper plates. One plate held a picture of him on the right, to the left it carried his name, gender and more basic information. The other was Fei's. Due to her peculiar taste in clothes, Lucian held onto everything whenever they went out.
"Lucian… and Fei, correct?" The elven receptionist confirmed with them. Only Lucian nodded his head, as it was obvious something was distracting Fei. "It's a pleasure to meet you two, you can call me Thran." He continued with a smile. "Before I fully register you two as adventurers, I must ask, are you sure you want to become one?"
"Yes, we're sure." Lucian answered for both him and Fei without hesitation. Normally, he'd ask her just in case, but his excitement took over him and he answered without thinking.
"Alright…"
Before he turned around, he glanced at Fei and shook his head slightly. 'Poor girl.' He has seen many demi-humans become adventurers, all of them had either been abandoned and quit, or have died due to their teammates or monsters. "Give me 10 minutes."
"Ah! Shoot, sorry I answered for the both of us." Lucian exclaimed a couple minutes after Thran left.
"It's… Fine."
"What type of mission do you think we'll get first?"
"..."
"Hopefully something fun, probably fighting some monsters or… I think that'd be the most fun!" Lucian exclaimed. Clenching his fists in excitement, he began to talk Fei's ear off about what they might encounter in the future.
"And once we make en-"
"Here you go, you're officially an adventurer." Thran interrupted him as he held out the two used to be copper plates, which were now lined with silver. Taking his and Fei's ids and holding them up to his face, he could see his reflection through the silver edges.
"Thank you!"
His enormous goofy grin reappeared as he held their ids near his heart when he bowed to Thran as thanks.
"You're welcome."
"Fei, do you know what this means?!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Fei?" Lucian repeated her name. His hand waved back and forth in front of her eyes multiple times causing her to wake up from her daze.
"Eh? Sorry, did, did you say something?"
"We can finally do what we dreamed of doing!" Lucian exclaimed as he held Fei's id in his outstretched hand. Fei's eyes were filled with emotions as she stared at her id in his hand. Worry and fear snuffed out the hope she had felt in her heart. Will that dream ever come?
'It won't…'
"Yes… We can." Fei mumbled under her breath as she took her id with her trembling hands.
"Ahem… Sorry to interrupt your little moment, there are a 'few' things I have to teach you guys before you become full fledged adventurers." Thran interjected into their little moment, a little smile was on his face as he leaned onto the counter watching them.
"Eh? What do you mean?"
Without uttering another word, Thran straightened his back then knelt below the counter. A colossal amount of books were hoisted onto the counter in the next moment. "It's time for you to learn the rules and regulations of the guild." His small smile, now looked like a devilish grin to the duo.
For the next 30 minutes Thran drilled the entirety of the rules and regulations into both Lucian's and Fei's skulls. Lucian's eyes completely glazed over in the middle of his lecture, meanwhile Fei's complexion turned completely white and if one looked closely to the top of her head, smoke could be seen rising.
"And that's about it." Thran uttered as he snapped the book in his hands shut. The sound caused Lucian to instantly jump out of his skin. "Do you have any questions?" He asked.
"No. no I don't have any…" Lucian responded. A hint of fear could be heard in his. 'I hope there isn't anything else…' He thought. If only that was true, but Thran decided not to delve deeper as he could see that he and Fei couldn't handle much more information.
"Oh, right, I almost forgot to show you something. Give me your id."
'Oh for the lo-' Lucian wanted to roar to the sky but held his tongue. With hesitation he set his id into Thran's outstretched hand.
"Thank you. What I'm about to show you is important for every adventurer. As it shows…" Thran stretched his pointer and middle finger out, in the next instance a blue light appeared at the tips. "Your status." In a swift motion, he slid his fingers across the silver edge.
"Woah?! What the heck?!" Lucian exclaimed as a blue box appeared in his retinae. A picture of him sat at the top right corner just under that, the word level followed by 0 to the right of it. To the left, the same information that was on his id was held there with a few additions such as "representative," "party," and lastly his rank, which of course was the lowest sitting at ceramic.
"What the heck is this?!"
"That is your status, it tells yo-"
"Yeah… Yeah…. I figured" Lucian cut him off, if he let Thran continue, he was afraid that his head would actually explode. "Is there anything else you want to show us…?"
Upon hearing those words, Thran's eyebrows twitched and a vein popped in his forehead. "There is more, but that can wait." He said with an exasperated sigh.If he "lectured" anymore, that might convince them to quit on the spot. Just by asking the question just a moment ago, Lucian winced. Meanwhile Fei stood there in a daze, not even the book snapping shut broke her out of it. "Just go over there, that's our request board, right now you can only take the white-colored requests. Once you grab one, bring it to me." Pointing to the right with his thumb, a gigantic board filled with countless vibrantly colored papers entered the sights of Lucian.
Nodding in understanding, he took Fei's hand and dragged her to the board with him.
'White… White… The white… requests.'
'Where the heck are they?! Did they all get taken?!'
No matter where and how hard he looked, he couldn't find a single one. Due to their lower rank and ease of tasks, the white requests were mostly finished so if Lucian wanted to find one he'd have to flip through the massive ocean of requests just to find one. But this would be no easy task, in just 10 minutes of looking he had found none.
"C'mon… there has to be- Aha!"
Just under a mountain of requests, he finally found one! A crumpled white request hid itself, but Lucian managed to find it after 10 more minutes of searching. He held his breath just before yanking it from what held it.
'Please, let it be a hunting job.' He prayed internally while closing his eyes. An adventurer's job can range from cleaning trash off the streets, to hunting jobs. And being at the lowest rank, the odds of finding a hunting job are slim to none. Giving the request a good eye, he could barely make out what the chicken scratches left on it meant, but he got the gist of it after a bit.
[...help ….. House is… dirty … Need helping hands. Reward: … coppers and a bag of vegetables.]
"Dang it…" He muttered under his breath. His head hung in defeat. The hopes of finding a fun first job were completely shattered. The only thing he and Fei will be hunting is the creature called filth which resides in countless corners of the world. Although he could look for another request, it'd take forever just to find another, plus he didn't have the patience for it. "What a great… find." He mumbled sarcastically.
"C'mon let's go." Yet again, he dragged Fei by the hand back to the counter.
"Here…."
"Ah, that request…" Thran said after looking at the request Lucian placed on the counter. Without uttering another word, he took out a pen and quill from under the counter… Just how many items does he have under there? An unanswerable question entered Lucian's mind.
"The old man who wrote this forgot to leave an address." Thran explained just before writing the address down onto the paper. "Once you get there, have him write his signature…" In a quick motion he struck the paper near the bottom leaving a clean black line. "Here. Once you're finished, come back here and submit this to the front counter, then we'll mark it as completed."
"You got that?"
"..."
"Sir Lucian, do you understand?" He repeated in a stern voice. This caused Lucian to straighten his back and the gloomy atmosphere that surrounded him disappeared. Even Fei, who was still dazed from the overload of information, shot up and her ears sprung up.
"Yes!"
"Good, now good luck."
"Thank you!"
After they shouted those two words, they left the guild in a rush.
"What a pain…"
"Sir, what's wrong?" A female receptionist asked the elf in front of her, in her hands a clipboard laid.
"Oh, nothing, I was just dealing with two new adventurers."
"Wait… Were these two called Lucian and Fei?" She asked whilst looking down at the clipboard with wide eyes.
"Yes."
"You- This is unheard of, you really put yourself as their receptionist?!"
"Hm? Yes, is there an issue?"
"No… Nevermind."
"Who knows, it might be fun." Thran responded with a smile.