After eating, they headed to the Adventurer's Guild.
At the top of the stairs, Mel let out a low "Wow…!" as she saw the magnificent building for the first time. Now, glimmering under the morning sun, the Guild is even more beautiful than at night.
Looking around like an excited child at an amusement park, she sees the view opposite the main building and rushes over to the railing, Ark following slowly behind.
Running to the railing, she is more amazed as she looks out. The city, which is no longer covered by the night, now glows under the bright sunlight, the white cityscape reflecting the light beautifully. The desert past the outer wall seemed to extend endlessly. To Mel, who had never left the slums, this was the most incredible experience she had ever had.
"Everyone reacts like that the first time they see it, even me." Ark told Mel after seeing her face.
"It's… beautiful…"
Ark chuckles, "You're right about that."
The two look out over the horizon for a few minutes before Ark gestures towards the Guild and they head towards it.
The guild is packed full of adventurers going about their business in the usual morning rush. Ark and Mel, managing to get in, find a bench where Ark tells her to sit and wait while he talks to the receptionist.
Mel sits on a wooden bench and anxiously looks around, there and many big, scary men carrying weapons everywhere, so she is obviously quite nervous.
As she nervously looks around, a giant approaches her. Now scared, she looks up at the huge man towering over her. The giant kneels down to be face to face with her.
"Hey there! You okay, young lady?" the man asks cheerfully, but Mel is too scared to reply. She darts her eyes around, looking for Ark, hoping to be saved, but he is still talking with the woman at the front desk.
The giant, noticing her glancing at Ark, chuckles before saying, "So, that's how it is."
Hearing him speak, Mel gazes at the man again before he asks,
"You're waiting for Ark, right?" He gestures towards Ark.
Mel nods frantically, hoping it will deter him.
"Don't worry, you're in good hands," he says with a smile, "Ark is a good guy!"
Melissa is now more confused than scared. She wondered what Ark's relationship with this man was, but just before she was about to ask, Ark came back.
"Ah, Mel, I see you've met the Captain." Ark says while greeting the man.
'Captain? He did mention that earlier…' Mel thought to herself.
"That's right! I haven't introduced myself, I am Tholl, captain of the Chimera." The giant proclaims.
"Oh… uh… M- My n- name's Mel- Melissa. N- Nice to meet you." she stammers out nervously.
"There's no need to be nervous, I don't bite…" Tholl chuckles, "Nice to meet you too!"
"Anyway, we were just about to get Mel registered, you wanna join, Captain?" Ark asks.
"Well, I don't see why not." he pats his legs and stands up.
"Come along now, Mel." he says with a cheerful smile, as he puts his hand out. Melissa nods and takes his hand.
They approached the receptionist who introduced herself to Melissa.
"Welcome to the Adventurer's Guild, my name is Connie, I heard from Mr Rakez here that you are going to sign up to be an adventurer?"
'Mr Rakez? Must be Ark' She thought before replying "Uh, yes… yes please."
"How polite," Connie the receptionist pointed out with a smile while pulling out a tablet, "Please fill in your details on this tablet, have you been mana tested?"
Mel takes the tablet and starts putting in her details while answering Connie's question.
"Uh… no, I don't think I have…"
"Alright, that's fine, after you're finished with that, we'll go into the testing room."
After filling in the tablet, they went over to a side room labelled 'Testing Chamber'.
Inside the room is a silo like chamber, the walls covered in various complex electronic machines. In the middle of the chamber is a solid, cylindrical podium with a translucent glass ball placed on top.
"Okay… Melissa… please approach the orb and place your hands on it. With this we will be able to measure your mana capacity and, if you're lucky, you might have an attribute!" Connie explained.
Mel approaches the glass ball and places her hands on it. After this, Connie presses a few buttons and the machines Iight and start making sounds. The glass ball starts to heat up and create a tingling feeling in her hands, then it starts glowing a nice gold colour.
The three others in the room let out surprised exclamations and wows.
"Woah… Melissa, you've got a light attribute and uh… a pretty substantial mana pool." Connie said with a surprised look.
"That's awesome, Mel! It's already rare to have an attribute but light is even rarer!" Ark says with a cheerful smile while patting her on the back.
Melissa, not being used to praise, couldn't help but smile.
They then left the room and went back to the front desk where another receptionist was waiting for them. The other receptionist then whispered in Connie's ear and then passed her a tablet. She read the tablet before calling over Ark.
"Mr Rakez, here is the information you asked for earlier." Connie says while passing over the tablet to Ark.
"Wow, quick work, as expected of the guild." Ark replied and took the tablet. Connie smiled politely at the compliment.
"Mel, come over here for a second." Ark says to Mel and they walk over to the benches and sit down. "I asked the guild to look into your parents… it seems that they were taken off-world to a mining… prison." he tells her hesitantly.
"Oh…" Mel replies while looking down solemnly.
"The debt is… not a small amount" he passes over the tablet where there is information about her parents debt with a large amount of credits on it, which makes Mel's eyes widen in shock.
"So, I discussed it with the Captain, and, if you'd like, we would like to recruit you to our party. We can train you, you can help us with quests, and we'll pay you. When you have enough, I'll help you pay off your debt. How about it?" Ark asks with an encouraging tone.
Mel looks up in surprise. "Really?! Okay, I'll do it, thanks, thank you!" She now looks at Ark with a hopeful smile and he smiles back.
They go over to Tholl who is waiting with Elsa and Harron.
"Uh… thank you for letting me join your party." Mel thanks Tholl sincerely.
Tholl chuckles before saying, "Welcome aboard the Chimera! I am Captain Tholl, but you already knew that, here is my vice-captain, Elsa, she acts cold but she's got a heart of gold." he pointed at Elsa standing next to him.
She clicks her tongue while lightly punching Tholl then says to Mel, "Nice to meet you."
"And this guy is Harron." Tholl continues, gesturing to Harron who is standing next to Elsa.
"Salutations, junior." he says seriously.
Mel is confused at his unusual greeting but quickly introduces herself, "Hello, I am Melissa, but Ark calls me Mel, so, uh, you can too, if you'd like. It's a pleasure to be here."
After the introductions were over, a guild staff member approached. "Mr Rakez, the Professor wants to speak to you." he says.
"Uncle does? Alright, gang, I gotta go so show Mel around the guild." Ark says and leaves.
Tholl and Melissa wave goodbye before Tholl speaks, "Okay Mel, I'll show you around the guild. Elsa and Harron, you do, uh, whatever it is that you need to do."
The pair first headed to one of the touchscreen kiosks.
"This is a quest terminal," Tholl introduced, "On these, adventurers can select from the many thousands of quests that get requested."
"Wow, that's a lot of quests." Mel replied, amazed.
"That's because this Adventurer's Guild is the main headquarters of this sector."
"Sector?"
"A sector is… well… you know we're on a planet right now? Well, planets, like this one, are in solar systems. Systems normally have ten-ish planets, rarely more than 4 are inhabitable, each planet usually has one government, then each of those planetary governments are united under a managerial system government. So, basically, a sector is a group of multiple systems united under one government, and then the sectors are united by whatever monarchy, republic or empire is currently in charge. Anyway, I'm getting off topic, so this Guild is the headquarters for an entire sector. Sectors aren't usually united under one HQ, but this sector is a core part of the Hydraxia Kingdom and it has enough wealth and stability to have one."
"That… sounds complicated…"
"Ha ha ha! Well, you're right about that!" Tholl chuckled while patting her on the back.
They then turned back to the screen.
"You're probably wondering how you find the thing you want from thousands of options?"
Mel nods.
"Well these kiosks have very useful filters." he presses a 'Filters' button on the screen and a long list of options appears below it.
"You can filter by rank, which is based on danger, location, if you have to stay on this planet or go offworld, and quest value, for parties that need to find quests that will compensate the whole crew. There are other filters, but these 3 are the important ones."
During the explanation, Mel started looking through the filters and quests.
"Since you're F rank, you're recommended to only go for F to E rank quests, they are mainly chores like cleaning or gathering. F and E rankers are basically part timers who need some easy cash.
When you get to D rank, which is the average for adventurers, adventuring is more of a full time job, but it is also where you can start going on extermination and escort quests which can get pretty dangerous. The rank determines the danger, not the difficulty or quest value. An E rank quest is less dangerous but could pay less than a D rank quest due to its difficulty that differs from danger.
At B rank, like me and my party, you are considered a professional and can take on more serious quests. To become B rank, you have to actually show your skills, unlike F to C rank where it's based on your personal preference and experience with the guild. Being B rank, means you get more guild benefits like quest priority and recommendation with guild associated businesses and VIPs. Then above that is A rank, which also requires a show of skill, and is just a better B rank. With B and A rank, you're basically guild employees so they sometimes send requests to you to do important quests or be part of 'raids' where multiple parties unite under guild management to do a special quest, usually exterminating an S rank monster or stopping an emergency.
Speaking of S rank, that is the highest rank. Only those selected can become S rank, they are recognised by nations as nobility and basically hold the power of an army. It takes an impossible amount of magical power and skill to attain S rank. The average A rank can only dream of becoming S rank. So, uh, try not to be too ambitious, aha."
Mel, after listening intensely to Tholl's long winded explanation, stands amazed, hearing of these super powerful S rankers.
"See that leaderboard up there?" Tholl pointed up at one of the mounted screens. "That shows the strongest adventurers."
Mel looks up and reads the highest ranked name, 'Shadow Slayer'.
"That's a corny nickname." Mel pointed out, cringing slightly.
"Yep." Tholl replied and they silently stared at the weird name of the number 1 adventurer in the galaxy.
They then selected a quest and received a ticket.
"After receiving a ticket, we wait until the ticket starts glowing," Tholl said and the ticket soon started to glow a bright green, "now, we go to the front desk where they approve us, since this is a D rank quest, and we are a B rank party, they should approve it, but it isn't always like this and it can be annoying to go back and pick a new quest so adventurers should pick quests carefully."
Mel nods and they go to the front desk. After getting approved, Mel notices Ark entering with a concerned look on his face. Seeing Mel, he changes back to his usually cheerful attitude so Mel disregards what she saw.