The setting sun shone through the window, it’s gentle light beaming directly onto my blanket. I lazily opened my eyes, uncurling from the circular position I was in and giving a luxurious yawn as I stretched my back.

After the super rude failure of a flower gatherer, the rest of the day had gone by rather smoothly for Mina. At least, I think so. I had kind of fallen asleep for most of it, but in my defense, the sun is very warm and cozy and I can’t reasonably be expected to stay awake and pay attention in these conditions.

It was far calmer throughout the building now. While before there was a line of all sorts of adventurers snaking out the door, now only one customer occupied the store, quietly perusing the shelves of potions.

Tori, “Village’s Pride”, human teenager, level 10.

Well, she wasn’t terribly impressive. Only person I’d seen so far that was a lower level than Mina, but at least she’s got a title. Teenager sounded like a weird class though, probably not a very popular one. Maybe it’s all she had to choose, or maybe it was secretly super strong. Speaking of classes, I hadn’t checked Mina’s yet.

Mina, human, level 11.

Ah, she really sucked. I see. Doesn’t even have the teenager class, despite being a teenager probably. I’m not the best with telling ages, but she looked pretty teenager-y? Maybe there were more requirements, not like I knew how things worked here. If only I had gotten a tutorial of some sort.

Tori the teenager finished looking over the stock of potions, grabbing one and quietly walking up the counter with it.

“Hi! Welcome to the adventurer’s guild! How can I help you?” Mina said cheerfully.

“Uh, I’d like to buy this potion.” Tori stammered nervously. We could clearly see you wanted to buy the potion Tori, get it together.

“Alright! Will that be all?” Mina asked with a smile.

“Ah, no, I’d like to join the guild, if that’s ok.” She said, her voice getting quieter as she talked, almost completely trailing off.

Mina didn’t miss a beat. “Absolutely! At the Adventurer’s Guild, anyone is free to join!” She ducked down behind the counter, rummaging through a few drawers before pulling out a piece of paper with Applicant Information written at the top. “I just gotta ask a few questions first. You know how to check your status, right?”

“Of course, just focus on it.” Replied Tori. Wait, hadn’t Radia mentioned something about that when she invaded my dream? I made a mental note to not forget to try opening my status.

“Alright, perfect. What’s your name, race, class, and level?”

“Tori, human, teenager, and I’m level 10.” Answered Tori, obviously ashamed of her class by the quiet way she said it. Couldn’t Mina have just used Insight? It says all four of those.

“Alright...” Mina jotted down the info on the sheet before asking her next question. “Just a few questions to see how prepared you are. Do you know how the quest system works?”

“Umm, I think so? Mostly?” Tori said unconvincingly.

“Alright, that’s a no.” Mina took a deep breath. “Each quest has a rank, the weakest and easiest quests are F rank, which is what you’ll be starting at. You may take any F rank quests, none of them should be too much of a challenge, easy stuff like harvesting five vitaleaf flowers. A baby could do it correctly.” She was clenching her fist again. “If you want to try to rank up, complete 3 F+ rank quests, which are just E rank quests that we at the guild have decided are good introductions to the next rank, and you’ll go up to E rank! From there, you can repeat the process and keep ranking up, provided you’re strong enough to actually complete the quests. Did you get all of that?”

Tori absolutely did not get all of that. I sure didn’t. “Uh, yeah! Crystal clear!” She lied.

“Perfect!” Mina checked a box. “Are you familiar with the basics of combat, adventurer’s rules, and proper potion protocol?”

“Uh, yeah, I know the first two. Not quite sure on potion protocol though, what is that?” Tori replied.

Mina’s eyes lit up. She cleared her throat dramatically and took a breath before beginning the explanation.

“So, potions are incredibly important to any adventurer. They can heal you, replenish your mana, make you stronger, make you more resilient, strengthen your senses, cure dehydration, set you on fire--but in a good way, I swear!” Mina paused for a moment before continuing her list of potions. “There are potions that harden your skin, let you breath underwater, grow you extra arms, lessen gravity on you, turn you into goop, make your magic stronger, allow you to not sleep, nullify pain, hallucinate wildly, make you luckier, attune you with the gods, turn you into another race, change your gender, give you a better sense of interior design, make flowers grow out of your hair, turn you invisible, turn you extravisible, give you immunity to poison, make you left handed, and that’s only the start of what potions can do!” I think she got the idea Mina, please let it be the end of what potions can do.

It was not the end. “Beyond potions you can drink, there’s throwable potions that will have various effects, such as clouds of acid, poison, smokescreens, mist for watering gardens, and generally some of the potion effects listed above but in an area. Then there are applied potions which you rub over an area instead of drinking, such as healing salves applied to wounds directly, potions of sunlight resistance, insect warding potions, limb erasure potions, stuff like that. But again, that’s only a few of the thousands of potions that are out there!” Mina stopped talking, mercifully, although she looked really happy to be talking about potions so perhaps I should shut up with my snide remarks.

It seemed the merciless blast of information on potion effect had dazed Tori, who impressively was still conscious enough to open her mouth and try to ask a question. She didn’t ask the question though, Mina didn’t give her the opening. Tori had asked about potions and she sure as hell was gonna learn about them.

“As amazing and useful as potions are, they aren’t without limits. They require quite a bit of knowledge to successfully make quality potions, and most people can only handle two to four potions before all of the components begin to react with their internal mana and they die a horrible, and painful death a few hours later. So don’t drink too many if you like living, got it?” Mina said, far too upbeat for someone warning of a terrible death. Tori looked quite shaken, but nodded meekly. “Great! So, uh, proper potion protocol is just that. Don’t drink more than two unless you know what you’re doing. Oh! And also, don’t buy poorly brewed potions, the effects will be lessened and there can be terrible side effects if the brewer messes up enough or has bad ingredients.” Mina tapped her cheek absentmindedly, lost in thought for a moment. “Alright, yeah, I didn’t forget anything. That’s a proper introduction to potions.” She said, checking another box on the form and looking it over as if she hadn’t just given the equivalent of a college lecture.

“Sign at the bottom and you’re an official part of the guild!” Mina said as she handed the Applicant Information form and a stick of charcoal to Tori who declined the crude pencil. Instead, she made her finger glow and signed her name with magic, her signature a bit shaky. Showoff. “Congrats and welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild! Feel free to take a look at the quest board, see if anything strikes your fancy.” Mina handed Tori a bronze pin. “That pin is proof of your membership, so I’d suggest not losing it. No big deal if you do, but it’s a hassle for me to get a replacement for you, and you won’t get the guild’s 20% discount at certain stores and restaurants.”

“Uh, thank you. I’ll try not to lose it. So, I’m, like, in the guild now? That’s it?” Tori asked, still recovering from the potions ramble.

“Yup! Congrats! Adventuring is a lot of people’s greatest dream, best of luck to you with it!” Mina said cheerfully before coming to a realization. “You were buying something too, right? Oh! A potion! Just a moment...”

“No, never mind, I’ll uh, just put this back.” Tori said, traumatized. She brought her health potion back to the shelves with shaking hands and almost sprinted her way to the door.

“Wha- no! It’s fine! You can drink one potion safely without dying!” Mina yelled, before slumping over the counter, defeated. “I gotta stop doing that…” She muttered as she began to gently pet my fur, her face nestled in her other arm. It had been a long day for her, I suppose I could permit it.