- Day 18 -

The Guild

From our current pace and the distance to Aslogia calculated together, it’ll only take us six to seven days by cart to get there. With the expedition team size, unusual route and troop composition, it will take them sixteen to seventeen days to reach the dungeon. As such, if our group heads straight for the dungeon, we’ll be sat around with nothing to do for nine or so days while we wait on the expedition force catching up. Not an ideal scenario with our enemies being aware of our plans, so to stop this eventuality, I decided the best option would be to complete a quick quest or two along the way. This has the added benefits of both killing time and raising my fame inside the adventurers guild. Win-Win.

Having left the house with Millie’s mountain of food safely packed away, I warped to the entrance of the Adventurers guild and began to proceed inside. As I do, I can’t help but notice once more how quiet it is, what with the only sound coming from my footsteps as they ring out across the empty hall.

It’s eerie, the guild seems even more deserted than the last time I was here, it's utterly devoid of people. Even the reception desk at the front entrance which previously had someone greeting visitors has no one standing at it now… Surely there should still be some staff about?

I decide to ignore my curiosity and continue my pace towards the requests board at the back wall past the trading area, I’m short of time after all.

As I reach it, I feel my jaw loosen at its cluttered state. The board is completely overflowing with stacks and stacks of paper, overlapping one another haphazardly. You can’t half tell that the Sinki Adventurers guild is hurting for new blood when you see a scene like this. The sheer volume of requests littered here are too many for the board alone; it’s forced the guild to plaster the surrounding wall as well! Some of the requests have even been pinned atop of other, older, requests. Katharine clearly underplayed the situation the country is facing here when she explained how the knights were trying to bridge the shortage...

As I look through the requests, I notice they have clear rankings on them, and I remember on Suzy’s words when I first signed up to the guild.

If memory serves correctly, I can only accept five quests of my same rank… Now that I think about it, what grade am I exactly? That ‘Adventurers Database Agent’ thing should be able to tell me, right?

I tend to keep that device on me at all times as the party system is only active while it is not in my inventory. Items in inventory are all kept in stasis after all, so it makes sense why the device won’t function in there. I’ve never really messed with the device though, beyond creating a party I mean, but what I’m looking for should be here...

Removing it from my pocket, I start fiddling with its buttons and display until eventually finding an overview displayed on its tiny grey crystalised screen.

Name: Aburi Draconis

Guild Nickname:

Rank: F

Points: 8,653,567

Rank F huh, sounds like that would be the starting point for all new guild members...

Suzy did say that you can use these points to increase your rank, but I can’t see anywhere to do that… Perhaps the ‘Turn in’ counter would know?

8.6 million, I wonder if that’s a lot of points…?

I continue to wait at the counter for a while, looking around the room until I come to spot an old brass reception-style bell resting on another counter, not too far from where I’m standing. Playing the rebel, I decide to ding it, thinking it’s better to ask whoever shows up there than continue to just stand here hoping someone will show up.

Sure enough, after my third rebellious ding of the bell, a short, balding man wearing large round glasses finally shows up wearing a sour expression. He quickly proceeds over to the bell and picks it up.

“Would you mind not doing that more than once. Once is enough. I heard you the first time you rang it. Someone will be with you as soon as possible!”

He turns to leave.

“May I ask when that may be? I mean, I’m the only one here after all.”

The man ignores me and continues on out of sight, taking the bell with him...

So… Now what?

I think to myself before suddenly spotting the male dog-kin from my first visit to the guild, walking towards the entrance of the building and decide to accost him as my answer.

“Excuse me?”

“Hm? Oh hello, do ya need something?”

“Please, yes. I’m looking turn in points to advance my rank. Suzy didn’t explain how that was done when I joined, though I also didn’t ask--”

“Suzy?”, He clicks his tongue at her name before continuing, “That air-head girl. Ah, lovely little lady, don’t misunderstand, but she can be a bit, well, silly? Shall we say? Well, what ya want to do is head over to that counter over there. See it, the one with the sign that says ‘Turn in’ above it--”

Uh-huh… Sure.

“Ah, so it was there then. Truth is I’ve been waiting there for a good while now but no ones turned up, so I started to wonder if I was wrong.”

The dog-kin jerks his head back to my words in an over-acted display of shock.

“Really? Kenny should be on post. Hm, let me go look for him. Wait right here, kay.”

I nod as he leaves.

I wasn’t standing for more than a minute before I see Kenny and the dog-kin standing at the ‘turn in’ counter, waving me over. It seems Kenny is the short, ill-tempered glasses guy from before.

“This is Kenny, he’ll be happy to help you from here.”

“Thank you. You’ve been extremely helpful… I’m Aburi, Aburi Draconis”

I offer my hand out as a greeting.

“Buster, a pleasure. Hm.”

He takes it, and we shake. Kenny’s expression during the whole exchange speaks volumes. It’s clear Buster must hold a position above Kenny at the guild, and as such, Kenny has been forced to fake an interest in me, though he would obviously prefer to walk away again.

“If ya need anything else, I’ll be right over there, ‘kay.”

“Right, thanks again.”

Buster heads off, and I turn to Kenny.

“So Kenny, now that you’re free, I’d like to exchange some points from the Adventurers Database Agent to increase my rank.”

Kenny lets out a muffled groan, “ADA.”

“Huh?”

“The device you’re holding,”, Knowing Buster is longer in earshot, Kenny lets out a loud exacerbated sigh of discontent before answering, “Look, just give it here will you.”

He takes the device from my hands and starts pressing buttons on the screen--

“Rank F, no nickname and...”

Kenny stops mid-sentence, looking closer at the device before looking back up to me.

“Uh-huh sure…”, Kenny smiles oddly at me, ”One moment.”

“Is something wrong?”

Kenny turns around and walks, taking my ‘ADA’ with him and completely ignoring me once more. Needless to say, I’m getting more than a little tired of this small man's attitude!

After standing around for a good ten minutes, I decide I’ve finally have had enough of Kenny and go find Buster to complain. Before I make it to the entrance, however, Kenny and another, much older man appear back at the counter, waving me to return to them.

“You. You are Aburi Draconis, yes?”

“I am. Is there a problem?”

“Problem? No... No. Please, would you come this way.”

Kenny lifts the counter for the old man as he comes close to it without a word given to him. The old man is undoubtedly some big shot for the guild based on Kenny’s attentive demeanour towards him.

As the old man moves past me, he gestures for me to follow without stopping, proceeding towards the big open space in the centre of the hall where the floor is sunken stone and lot’s of tables are dotted around. Kenny follows after us both while carrying some sort of low-humming crystal that’s encased with gold structs that form an aired cuboid around it.

Once we’re in the centre of the sunken floor, the old man stops me at the closest table and proceeds to the opposite side while Kenny places the large crystal in the centre.

“Place your hand on the crystal.”

Kenny barks his words like an order to me. Part of me felt like telling him where to go, but the curious part of me decides to go along with it.

“Your device. Have you tampered with it?”

The old man asks, with a raised brow.

“No”

The crystal glows green. Ahh! So it’s a lie detector?! Haha, how cool!

“He must have! How can a Rank F have over eight million points! It’s impossible! He’s clearly done something to it!”

Ah ha, so that’s what this is about. I guess eight million is indeed a lot of points. Though, as this is the case, the old man's question is sorely lacking. Just because I didn’t tamper with it, doesn’t mean someone else didn’t do the work for me... I sense an opportunity.

“Ah, I see the issue. Old one, can you tell the short one to disappear. I would like a private conversation, under a barrier if acceptable--”

“Short one?!”

“Old?”

The man pauses for a moment, raising his open hand to his wrinkled chin, seemingly realising as he does that he has yet to introduce himself.

“Ah. My apologies. I am Elder Faltus. I am… the keeper of this guild, as most would say. Kenny, please resume your duties. I would speak to this young elf alone.”

“What? I-I mean. As you ask, Elder.”

Once Kenny has left the sunken stone area, I raise a barrier and turn away from the Elder.

*Blink*

With a barrier up, blocking everyone’s sight to what is happening, I bring out the Rakshaw corpse, laying it on the table behind me. The body is too big for one table, however, as it sprawls out and up against the surrounding tables as well.

“I’ve been in the Rayford Catacombs on the outskirts of the city, by Duke Rayford's request of course. My party and I killed this thing in there along with three-hundred or so goblins. I believe this should explain my abnormal points compared to my rank.”

“My… word. A Rakshaw is it...”

The Elder is visibly shocked upon seeing the monster laying out in front of him. But seemingly not by the sudden appearance of a corpse.

“But why would you keep the corpse?”

“Well, I’m also an alchemist. Something in its biology may prove useful in my experiments. Waste not, want not, after all.”

“Prudent… Yes. This does confirm what your ADA and the sanquin stone reports…”

He tails off while looking around at the barrier.

“...I assume you prefer we not speak of this to others?”

The old man seems to understand my need for secrecy, though a look in his eye tells me it will cost me something to buy his silence.

“I would. Tell me plainly Elder Faltus, what favour do you ask in return?”

“Favour? Ah. I see. Not a favour, perceptive one, just... a request. Should you decide you do not need that corpse, sell it to me, if you would. I will pay well, in points or gold.”

He wants the corpse? In truth, I’ve already harvested the parts that are likely to be of use, including the stone…

“Elder, I’ve already harvested most of the parts from this corpse. Are you saying you still want it, despite being in this condition?”

The old man gives a single nod before raising his left hand and gesturing five to me.

“Of course. Five-hundred-thousand points. If you can see free of it.”

...Study. It has to be for study right? Know your enemy and all that. By studying the corpse, they can learn how best to fight it--

“Though I require to know how it died also.”

Yeah, it’s for study. As I said, I have everything I need from it, and it’ll be good to have a contact high up in the guild.

“Then the corpse is yours--”

No sooner did I finish saying that, did the old man clench his raised hand to a fist, pointing the sapphire gemmed ring that rested on his middle finger towards the corpse.

“Collect.”

*Blink*

Well, feck me. The ring is like my inventory! I bet you it’s called a dimension ring--

[** Dimensional Ring of Advanced Holding **] [** Grade. Purple **] [** Capacity. Two-thousand **] [** Protected Gem **]

Called it.

“The points will be transferred. We must return to the counter for that. The method, if you will?”

“Very well. To kill the beast, I cast the dark attribute [Blind] spell on it. It seems highly susceptible to the magic and once affected, it had trouble tracking us. I would say it seems to heavily rely on its sight in combat... From there, I bound it with more magic, dark attribute [Mass Binding], and held it down with [Gravity Field]. It became pretty docile once it realised it couldn’t break free and just lay there awaiting its death.”

“I see. Interesting. Should you obtain other specimens. I would be interested.”

The old man gestures towards where the counter would be visible if the barrier were down. I take this to mean our business is concluded and lower the barrier as indirectly requested. Before it is even entirely down, Elder Faltus proceeds towards the counter where Kenny and Buster are waiting, leaving the lie detector on the table behind us for someone else to clear up later. Buster, who is sat on the bench, looks deep in conversation with Kenny but they both fall silent on the old man's approach.

“The man is honourable. Credit Draconis, additionally, five-hundred-thousand points for services rendered to me.”

“E-Elder!?”, Kenny shrieks out, pathetically.

“Do it. I will not repeat myself.”

“O-of course Elder. Right away, I-I did not mean to question.”

“I believe our business is concluded then sir Draconis. Please. Continue as you were.”

The old man nods to me before Buster lifts the counter for him, allowing the Elder through and out of sight.

“He likes you Aburi, and the Elder likes no one. Just what happened under that barrier, hmm, pray-tell?”

Buster inquires, leaning on the counter and over towards me while Kenny runs around behind it, writing in various books.

“Nothing much. Just a promise of trade and silence. If you want to know anything more, you’ll have to ask the Elder himself.”

Not satisfied with my answer, Buster clicks his tongue.

“Secrets, secrets, secrets. Nothing like a mystery to start a gossip wildfire you know Aburi.”

He says while pushing off the counter.

“But, as there’s only the three of us here, I guess my lips have to stay sealed, lest I want to fall on the Elders bad side like poor Kenny over there, which I honestly do not. Stay safe, hm~.”

Buster walks off, back towards the entrance of the Guild, most likely returning to his post at the entrance--

“S-So.”

I turn back to see Kenny standing behind the counter with an open book.

“This is you; You’re ledger in the guild; The transaction the Elder spoke of. Sign there. Do you have a signet?”

“No--”

“Of course not. You’re an elf, why would you.”

Why ask then, you ass.

“You enquired about ranking up.”, Kenny hands me a parchment, “As you can see, proceeding from rank F to rank B is simple enough for you as you have the points already. The first rank bracket, F to D, is the new member brackets which is why the point requirement is so low to promote up to D. C to B is a flat million. Are you following so far?”

“Yes. Continue.”

His eye twitches, most likely at my monotone response.

“Hm well, with your current points, rising straight to B is not a problem, but to go from B to A or S, you first must proceed up the ten steps of each preceding rank. Once you enter rank B, for example, you’ll start at B10. To get to B9, you must complete one request of B9 and pay ten per cent of rank B’s point cost; one-hundred thousand points--”

“Could I not take a B1 quest, complete it and pay the million points?”

“...While there’s nothing against that--”, He cuts himself off mid-sentence, “Actually. Yes. There’s nothing against that.”

Uh-huh. He thinks I’m underestimating B1 requests and wants me to go off and die. So transparent.

“Then I’ll try that. I’ll proceed straight to B10.”

Kenny holds out his hand.

“Very well. Your ADA.”

I hand it to him, and Kenny takes it over to a stone-looking pedestal that’s just out of eye-line, probably to make the necessary updates to my rank. He returns shortly after and places the device on top of another piece of parchment he set first.

“That lists the benefits and entitlements of your new rank. Anything else?”

He asks, clearly hoping to be done.

“No. Thanks, Kenny, it’s been… Well, it’s been something, for sure.”

Without reply, he sulks back, away from the counter and out of sight.

The parchment he left under the device is interesting. As a B ranked member, my monthly membership fee has reduced to ten copper, I can get a free room at any branch for a night and have access to the B rank items at the Adventurers market that comes to Sinki every three months. There’s a couple of other benefits, but they’re just fluff-out material.

So, now I just need to find a request to do… No. Manually looking through that mess of a request board will take hours. I nearly forgot about this but AE, show me B1 requests in this location.

[** Eight found **] [** Displaying to optic interface **]

Kill a troll; merchant guard; source the whereabouts of a noble… Ah, this one’s on the way, and it looks simple enough too.

I locate the request and take it from the wall. Knowing my chances of getting Kenny to help me with undertaking the request, I instead find Buster at the front entrance who agrees to help me out without complaint.

“Ya sure about this?”

“I am. I’ve dealt with these guys before.”

“Mhm. If ya really are sure, then I need ten silver and ya ADA.”

*Blink*

Silver King Coin x14 -> x4

I hand Buster the money and device, which he takes with request over to that stone pedestal that I could barely see from before, placing the request on it first and then the ADA atop it. After a couple of seconds, two faint blue lights appear and begin to circle inwards from the outer edge of the pedestal, slowly getting faster and closer to one another until they seem to connect brightly before disappearing entirely.

“Here ya go. Thirty days, as the request stated. Your ADA will track the progress and once complete, just pop into any branch, kay?”

I take the device back from Buster and thank him for his help. With this sorted, I should head back to the house and say my goodbyes…

*Zip*