Hello, we meet again. Please enjoy reading it~
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"Hiiragi, where are we going?"
"To the town. I want to find some information and get some kind of ID or something like that."
After their rendezvous with the king, Sylvie and Hiiragi headed to the town by walking since they did not want to attract any unnecessary attention.
They walked side by side along the street heading to the town. The scenery did not change as they walked. Just a mass of citizens living their daily life.
They arrived after a few minutes later since the distance was not much.
Some were shopping at the store, some were eating at stalls or restaurant. Some were only sightseeing around the town.
Hiiragi noticed a few things as he strolled.
There were some kind of differences of status and places. There were people with fancy clothes who spent their money freely in various high-class places. They were nobles or at least merchant.
On the other hand, there were those who used their money at cheap, ordinary shops or stalls. There wore ordinary clothes and some of them were wearing torn and dirty clothes. Maybe they were commoners who did not have much money to live even a normal life.
Sylvie, who saw this for the first time did not know how to react. There was sympathy in her eyes when she looked at the children in the slums. They wore shabby and dirty clothes. Their body were very thin, maybe from malnutrition. One thing obvious, was that they were starving. Sometimes, Sylvie saw a few children having a hollow look in their eyes.
Her heart ache watching this.
"Do you want to help them?"
Hiiragi asked as he saw the look in her face.
"...To be honest, I want to. But, for now I need to focus on the biggest problem."
Her face showed determination. Her eyes carried her resolution.
She knew that if she helped them now, they will be happy but only for a moment. When she leave, they would suffer again like before.
Therefore, it would be better for her to reach her main goal, the peace with the demon race. By doing so, she would be able to have more opportunities to help them.
"...okay. Now, let's go to the place where all the cliche's begin. Adventurer Guild."
Adventurer Guild. These two words were one of the most popular words in the fantasy novel. Most of the stories in teleportation to other world would have this place.
In this world, Adventurer Guild was a place where people who wished for thrilling and dangerous jobs but rewarding would work. There were many jobs that could take here.
For example, subjugation, scouting, investigation and many more. They do all kinds of work. They were different from mercenaries which take any job from any client.
Any adventurer can choose which work they wanted.
Hiiragi and Sylvie went there since they could get Adventurer Card which worked like ID. People would use this Adventurer Card as something like card which they could use to get into any city as long as they did not commit any crime since this card can detect any crime they had done.
The magic casted on the card would activate if the owner did it.
Since Hiiragi and Sylvie did not have any normal identification, Hiiragi thought they should get one in the Adventurer Guild. Sylvie had an identification but it was a royal one so it would attract attention if they used it.
At this moment, Hiiragi and Sylvie stood in front of the guild building. It was quite big and fancy. The guild was a three floored building.
"Syl, I don't know what kind of things will happen beyond this door so make sure to be close to me. If anyone talk to you, let me do the talking. You just stay quiet."
"Okay."
What Hiiragi said was reasonable. If there was any provocative person especially man, talked to a newbie, mainly female, they would enjoy the female reaction more which would attract more attention to them.
Then, they entered the guild quietly and headed to the receptionist counter.
The inside of the guild was spacious and there was something like a restaurant at one part of it.
The guild function as the manager of the adventurers and restaurant at the same time, so there were people eating at the restaurant. Hiiragi saw some people were drinking something similar to liquor there and they were quite drunk since their eyes were unfocused and their faces were red.
Things got rowdy over there and Hiiragi prayed for their business would solve peacefully.
When the couple arrived at the counter, the female receptionist greeted them with a business smile.
"Welcome to the Adventurer Guild. Are you here to register or make a request?"
"Hello, we are here to register as adventurers. Can we do that?"
Hiiragi replied her with his usual sleepy face. The receptionist kept her business smile while replying him.
"Yes, do you need an explanation?"
"Yes, please."
Hiiragi and Sylvie listened to the receptionist attentively, well at least Sylvie was listening to her while Hiiragi looked like he barely listened as his head kept swaying.
When Sylvie looked at his face which was covered by his long hair, her eyes were closed like he was sleeping. She sighed at his attitude.
Not long after that, the receptionist finished her explanation with a fulfilled smile.
"Well, do you have anything you do not understand?"
"...oh, she had finished. For me, nothing."
Hiiragi said while yawning quietly in front of her. The receptionist's smile was twitching when she saw Hiiragi's action but did not react rudely.
Although he looked like he was sleeping earlier, he heard all of it and simplified it in his head.
To put it simply, adventurer can take any mission or request at the quest board. Any information will be stated in the quest paper and for more information they could ask the receptionist.
There were ranks among adventurers.
Starting from the top, S, A , B, C until F. The ranks were the evaluation from their strength, and quest completion rate. The higher the rank the more quest they could take. For rank S and A, they will be given special treatment such as treated as nobles and annual income. However, they will be restricted to the kingdom and obligated to do the request from the nobles and royalties. If not, there will be penalties for them.
For the quests and missions, adventurer will only be able to take any request that is below their rank until one rank above them. This was to reduce their death percentage in case of being unable to face the danger. In case of failed mission, they will be penalized to pay double the reward stated in the quest paper.
To raise rank, it could be achieved with a few ways. Firstly, complete many quests. Next, rank up test which will be conducted by the guild trainer. Lastly, the guildmaster's authority.
The completion count changed according to their ranks.
Sylvie raised her hand to ask a question. The receptionist noticed and let her.
"Yes?"
"Can we decide whether we want to rank up or not?"
"Yes, although it is better to have higher rank since the difference in treatment would be quite big. Especially for Rank A and S."
The receptionist answered with a strange face since many adventurers would choose to rank up as fast as they can since they wanted to be rich.
But, hearing her question made her feel confused.
"Can we register now?"
"Yes, please fill the required information on this paper. You are not obligated to fill your abilities but it is better to do so in case of emergency."
Hiiragi wanted to finish registering fast since he could not handle the looks from the other adventurers who had been watching them for some time. Bad feelings crept up on him.
Hiiragi and Sylvie filled up the page as she told to but Hiiragi left his abilities empty since he did not know what he should put there. Sylvie wrote 'healing with water magic' in the blank.
After that, they gave the form to the receptionist and waited for their registration to finish.
"Please wait for a moment. Your Adventurer Card will be completed in a moment."
The receptionist said as she went into the room. Hiiragi and Sylvie stood there quietly, waiting for her to come back.
As they waited, an adventurer who looked like a pink stood up and walked to them with a smug smile.
"Oy, oy. Adventure is not a work suited for you, little kid. You better of running to your mama. This job is dangerous for you. You won't be able to handle this kiddo."
He said to Hiiragi. Hiiragi only looked at him with his signature sleepy face while thinking...
Uwaa, the top of cliche line in novel came!!!
The punk then looked at Sylvie with a lecherous stare while grinning.
"And you girl, you're not suitable in here. You would live better as my prostitute. Your place is on my body, not here. I'm sure you will be more satisfied with me rather than this kiddo."
He then laughed loudly while his company back at the restaurant were laughing too.
Sylvie did not know how she should react. Strangely, she did not feel angry but funny when she looked at them.
She chose not to laugh but smile calmly while watching them.
Hiiragi who heard that did not feel anything as he simply thought of them as immature adult who did not know the world yet.
Therefore, he replied.
"My mother died while I was eleven. So, I have no one I could run to. And I only register here to get a job to support myself in this world. I won't be doing any dangerous job like you, my senior in this work. So, I'm sorry to disappoint you but I won't listen to your advice. Thanks for the advice anyway."
"Ah, uh....."
The punk felt a little bad when he heard that Hiiragi's mother had died. Although a little bit, he still had a tiny sympathy in his heart despite being a bad adventurer.
"Furthermore, my father died protecting me. So, I can only trust myself to support myself and this girl beside me. I do not know where I can work with stable income so I try to find job here. I'm sorry but I can't listen to your advice of not working here."
"Ah, yeah...it's fine."
"Thank you for waiting. Here are your Adventurer Card. Please take care not to lose it since you have to pay five silver to create a new one."
Right after the punk talked to Hiiragi, the receptionist came back with two cards of the same colour, bronze which meant newcomer or Rank F.
The colour represented the rank
Bronze for F until D. While Rank C was silver, B was blue, A will be gold and S will be black.
"Thanks. By the way, what's your name?"
Hiiragi thanked the receptionist and asked for her name. The receptionist smiled and said.
"My name is Sarah."
"Thank you, Sarah-san."
"Let's check out the quest board for any available quest."
Hiiragi said to Sylvie. Sylvie followed after Hiiragi who was walking to the quest board.
He searched for any Rank F quest that they could do in one day.
He came across quite a few such as babysitting, caretaker, cleaning the pit, herb collecting and repairing the roof.
It seemed that Rank F was supposed to be something like helping the citizens. Most of them were like volunteer works.
Well, I have no complaint about it.
"Sylvie, any suggestion?"
"Let's do herb collecting."
"Okay."
"You sure?"
Sylvie asked back for confirmation. Although she suggested that, it didn't mean Hiiragi had to agree.
"Not like I have anything else. I want to do the other work tomorrow."
"Well, okay."
Hiiragi picked the quest form and handed it to Sarah. Sarah professionally read the quest form and explained about it to them.
"Quest for herb collecting is it? The herbs can be collected outside of the city which is just a stone's throw away from here. You should be able to find many of them in the forest. The danger level was almost non-existent since only slimes were there. The herbs you should collect looked like this."
Sarah picked a book from the shelf and opened it, exposing a drawing of the herb. Hiiragi and Sylvie looked at it to memorize the shape.
"You need to collect at least ten of this herb and the more the better. Any other herbs or medicinal plants were also welcomed. You can read this book to see if you find something similar to them."
Sarah let them read the book while explaining the requirement for the completion of the quest.
Hiiragi and Sylvie read one pages after another with superhuman speed. They only need ten seconds to read all the information in one page. If the pages only showed illustration, they memorized it in a few seconds. The note in the book was also very short, therefore made the reading faster.
They flipped one page after another without much time lag which made Sarah felt uneasy when watching them.
"Can you really memorize it? You are turning the pages too fast."
"Oh, no need to worry. I'm just looking at it."
"Me too."
Lies. Both of them lied without any guilt. Both of them were avid readers and would read from the beginning to the end. They just said that because they did not want them to misunderstand.
Sarah sighed when looking at them since she did not know how to react.
After a while, they gave back the book to Sarah and went to do their quest.
After they left the guild, Sylvie asked Hiiragi.
"Hiiragi, this might be late but why do we have to do quest? Isn't the reason you wanted to have the card is for identification?"
"Well, I wanted to raise the rank a bit before we left for the main goal."
"What for? You don't want to attract attention, right?"
Sylvie was confused. Hiiragi said that he did not want to gain attention but by raising the rank, he would be getting attention. That's a contra.
"If our ranks were too low, people might look down on us. But, if we at least have the same rank as seasoned adventurer, they will look at us at the same standing at least."
"Ohh, I understand. So, until what rank will we be raising?"
"Somewhere around C or D. That's the average I think."
"Okay."
"Then, all question aside, let's collect the herbs."
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"Gravil-san, did I not warn you not to intimidate any newcomer from registering before?"
Sarah asked the punk, Gravil with a cold tone. Gravil trembled, hearing her chilling voice.
"I-I just don't want them to underestimate the danger of being adventurer. T-That's all."
He gave an excuse while looking at Sarah with a frightened face. Sarah continued staring at him with her eyes gone cold with intimidation. Albeit a little, there was killing intent mixed within it.
After a while, she sighed while stopping the pressure she sent to Gravil.
"Well, fine. However, don't do that again okay."
"I-I understand. Sorry."
Gravil apologized to her while scratching the back of his head.
"Kakaka! You made her mad, Gravil! Bad move, dude!"
His company laughed at him when he was scolded by Sarah.
"Man, you were trembling quite loud when she glared at you."
"Shut up, you'd act the same if you're in my place!"
"Hell, man. Of course I will. Who would not be scared when being glared at by the former Rank A adventurer, the Nightmare Of Hellfire, Sarah! You would be courting death if you tried to anger her!"
"Hey, don't bring up the past! I can hear you, you know!"
Sarah shouted while getting red. Embarrassed was the cause maybe?
"Hahahaha!"
Sarah, former Rank A adventurer. Nickname, Nightmare Of Hellfire. Known throughout the whole kingdom of Griatim. Many had tried to pull her into other kingdom yet none success. Her prowess over blaze magic was very known to any nobles and adventurers everywhere. Able to achieve such success at young age, she retired and worked as receptionist in an Adventurer Guild.
"It's embarrassing you know! Who the hell gave me that name!"
"Your attitude suits that name! Hahaha!"
The adventurers who were in the guild laughed loudly when they spoke. Sarah on the other hand was pouting cutely as she was dissatisfied.
Under her previous professional attitude, her true personality was a hot-headed and cute girl.
"Like I said, I hate that nickname!!!"
Sarah shouted inside the guild to express her feelings.
The reactions she received were only...
"Still haven't changed huh! Well, that's why you're so cute, lil' Sarah!"
The other senior adventurers who were there when she was still a newbie laughed at her attitude.
"Mouu!! Don't treat me like a little girl anymore! And don't call me lil' Sarah!! I had grown you know!"
"No matter what, you will always be our lil' Sarah!! Hahaha."
The guild was exceptionally loud that day and the other guild staffs had to quiet them down in the end.
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Done! Sorry for the slow pace of the story. Thanks for reading and please vote and comment.
Cyclone out! Peace✌️~✓