The Ring, the main hall of the Halo Guild was packed with adventurers of various ranks going about their businesses. Some were forming parties for quests, being opportunities for the lower ranks to improve together. Others could be seen picking up quests with their Magic Beads, the guild having vast ranges of quest at their disposal. Despite all that, there were also those who preferred to play solo, preferably the high ranks in cloaks. With the roaming here and there, chit chatting, noisiness and bustle all over.
A figure in simple leather gear was busily doing what most never did— admiring The Ring. 'Whoa! I never knew this was how the inner view of the ring would look like. It's amazing!' Allan was in awe as he stood at the center of the large building, making a 360-degrees turn to get a view of everything. 'The marble flooring, golden sculptures, silver pillars, the arcs, the doors...everything's so flashy!!'
His mind was in a frenzy now, moving here and there, he'd already silently covered the entire 100-meter radius of The Ring in seconds.
'Among everything, the best's what's above.' Allan shut his eyes and looked up, wanting to take in the best of the wonderful architecture of the ring at once.
"Huh? What the—" He was dumbfounded seeing nothing but a large screen above him, it was rectangular or square from the angle one looked from, as it was a magical construct. "Whoa! That's a leaderboard? So Huge!" The list of names which he could see on it were constantly changing, some moving up and others coming down.
'Edgar Hance?!' One of the names on the list read boldly and in a second it moved up from 9997 to a higher rank of 9996.
"What, he already has a ranking in the guild? But we just took the same test two days ago, this just insane!" Allan muttered to himself in disbelief. Edgar had passed with a D-rank that day while he had made it out with an F-rank instead.
'So how come a D-rank got the chance to be on the leaderboard, I also have to be there too.' He thought, reading the names higher than Edgar's to get where he'd been ranked as. After all, being the only F-rank that day he was to be above the others right?
'Ugh, the list sure is long.' He sighed, exhausted from walking backwards with head up high just to catch a view of his name.
"Ah, why didn't I remember that first." Recalling an object which came along with the items he received from the guild, he reached for his left side where his sword hung. Untying the knot of the metallic string attached to the blank copper tag, he took it into hands.
"Wait, it's blank? But I really did see something on it, when that scarred face held one. He um...he um. Yass, I remember now."
*RUB
*RUB
After rubbing the surface of the tag, he couldn't see any form of change on it at all. 'Did I rub the wrong side?' Allan thought only to be disappointed to see the other side being identical. Still, he went for another rub on it again, receiving the same results— nothing.
*SHAKE
*SHAKE
He shook it, holding it at its edge as he did but like before, there was no reaction from it.
Annoyed he grabbed onto the metal string and as the copper tag dropped, he went into a swinging frenzy. Whooshing as he swung the tag, it did seem to be getting a bit fun until—
"WHAM!
It's path deviated and landed nowhere else but on his face. As if a block had hit him, he was almost sent tumbling down to the ground.
'Ahhhh! I'll destroy you!' Vexed at it, he grabbed and squeezed the tag. His left eye, having a dark iris as his hair colour, suddenly turned silver.
Infusing his life force into the tag, he was met by a magical screen appearing before him in an instant.
.....
Name: Allan Nightshade
Rank: F
Guild Points[GP]: — [Take Quests To Increase]
Guild Ranking: 10000+
.....
Staring at screen for a few minutes without blinking, he tried hard and harder however, he couldn't get a single thing written on screen except his name and rank.
"Ah, at least there's a number there. Should be quiet on top then." Allan muttered noticing another word with 'rank', guessing it to be what he'd been looking for. He wasn't bothered about the fact that he could neither read, write or count. 'Master always says those are for the weak; only strength matters!'
"Hmm, it says something here near this one." His gaze landed on the 'Guild Points' section, usually refered to as GP by adventurers. "Qut... qst... qust... quest...ah! Quest. Master always gave me one." Allan muttered.
'They're supposed to be on boards as usual. I saw them around here somewhere.' Glancing around for where the quest boards were, it was found it fairly easier than expected.
'That's a huge number of people.' He thought, slowly approaching the quest area meters away from his position. The area was quite close to one of the many entrances of the large building, taking up a full length of 20-meters on the wall.
Crowded as it was, many were moving to and fro from the area nonetheless, the crowd remained. Looking around each quest board, there wasn't one he couldn't get about 50 people swarming around.
"Ugh!!" Allan gritted his teeth, leaning onto a nearby pillar awaiting a chance to get a quest board void of people. If he were to get too close to people physically, he'd feel sick and most importantly awaken it. After all, his anti-social lifestyle begun after awakening it— his Primal Being. Having spent most of his life with his Master, training vigorously in order to increase his life force manipulation, the only thing his Master considered to be important— the inner flame, Prima. For if he hadn't awakened his primal being, he'd still be held up in that hell the crazy old master of his lived in. Yet this was what he got in return, as a single unexpected bump by another person could acti—
*POKE
The tip of a finger came into contact with his cheek all of a sudden.
'Did— did someone just poke me?!'
"Oops, it's a real person!" A voice chimed, the voice of another gender.
'Oh no.' As if seated on a throne in a dark space, a leg connected with his face and sent him flying. "Kekekeke, felt like decades!"
Outside, Allan's eyes were both silver now and in a split second, his head turned towards the direction where the finger came from.
Now staring at the person half a meter beside him, the awakened primal being froze, Allan's face reddening up.
"Darn it, she's cute!"