Good day! Here comes Ch5 with some interesting information into the world of adventurers. As always feel free to comment with any thoughts you have :).

Ehehe, well I hope you guys enjoy :).

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V1: Wild Child

C5: The Adventurer’s Hall

The party of adventurers is currently traveling down the road leading from the forest to the Adventurers outpost. Nova’s figure is now dressed in makeshift clothes that Leilatha got him to wear with great effort.

Because of how pale Nova’s skin was from living in forest, if he didn’t wear clothes he would probably get sun burnt to a horrible degree. Also it would be a bit embarrassing to walk through the outpost with a half-naked Nova, even if he was only a child.

However Nova has forgotten the uncomfortable clothes as his mind is currently occupied with all the new sights around him. Traveling down the road are other groups of adventurers of many different races and monsters that simply shock Nova.

There are giant men with horns on their heads and tails swishing behind them; there are men with green scales and lizard-heads; there are elves with tan, light blue, light red, or dark gray skin; there are men with giant axes, hammers, or great-swords while there are also men with thin swords and daggers or staves and wands; there are people with large monsters like lizards, spiders, and there was even a giant armadillo creature with a man wearing a cowboy-style getup riding on top of it.

Each and every adventurer was different from the next, and each and everyone of them found a way to fascinate Nova whose eyes never even took the time to blink. He could hear talk of tales of exploration and fights and dungeons he’s never heard of as they passed by. All the while they drew closer and closer to the outpost.

The entrances to the outpost don’t have any guards, as its not a city with regular civilians that need to be protected. There are no mayors, nobles, or politics that plague other cities in the kingdoms. There is only adventurers and merchants.

As they enter the outpost Nova is lost in the sea of noise and sights. The hammering of metal comes from a stone building with a plume of smoke rising from it’s roof. The bartering of adventurers and merchants looking to buy and sell goods line the sides of the roads filled with stalls.

As they enter the center of the outpost there is large circular clearing filled to the brim with adventurers. People are standing all over the place shouting out requests to recruit people for their groups to go explore the wilderness or quests to go hunt down wild monsters within the borders.

The group of adventurers ignores all this and proceed to the northern edge of the clearing, weaving their way through the crowd.

Sometimes they get looks, mostly because of Bahina. Even amongst Adventurers the Azure Tiger is incredibly rare, however to attack an adventurer to kill their monster companion is regarded as an extreme crime.

Not to mention the punishments that would come from the Adventurer’s Enclave if they were caught, but the Adventurer’s Guilds behind the adventurer themselves would seek vengeance. And trying to sell the materials gathered from such a rare monster would be the same as admitting to the crime.

The system of adventurer relationships works like this:

At the top there is the Adventurer’s Enclave. They deal with missions, requests, and dungeon explorations of all adventurers. Anyone who is not registered with them, is not a true adventurer. They also assign the rankings of every adventurer as well as collect information, assign ranks, and organize all known monsters that have been discovered by adventurers throughout history.

Below them, are the Adventurer’s Guild. They are groups of adventurers who have partnered together to protect themselves from the more greedy adventurers who try to steal loot and monsters either inside or outside the dungeons. To mess with one adventurer is to mess with their entire guild, or so it goes.

Below that, are the Adventurer Parties. They are the small groups of adventurers who have joined together as teammates to fight monsters in the dungeons or on missions.

So although Bahina is attracting some jealous gazes, no one interferes with them, and they don’t bother with anyone else.

At the Northern edge of the plaza is the Adventurer’s Hall. It is a massive, five-story building made of sturdy light gray stone. The doors are simple in design but are made out of solid metal. Even though they look incredibly heavy, they’re easy to open with just a push.

On the inside it is even more packed than the outside, even though its a massive hall that is almost triple the size of the plaza. At the edges of the halls are booths separated by sturdy walls with small openings in them. In these openings are clerks who are handling the adventurers who have come to reassess their ranks, sell goods to the Adventurer’s Enclave, or register their parties for missions. In front of every single opening is a long line of people waiting for their turn, each one discussing plans and tales with their friends or other adventurers.

Nova is still staring wide-eyed at everything that’s passing in front of him while Leilatha is thinking its too bad that he can’t explain things to him clearly in such a noisy environment.

The group enters one of the lines and end up waiting for almost two hours before they get the chance to talk with a clerk. Meanwhile Anderson, Muiredon, and Amber all head out to organize a place for their group to stay at one of the inns, leaving their loot in the hands of Leilatha who is recognized as the most responsible. Anna stays behind to as she needs to rank up, and also because there’s no need for her to go to the inn yet, as the matter of picking out new clothes for Nova is currently exciting her.

Finally, they are at the front of the line and get to speak with a clerk, who is a human lady that looks to be around forty years in age, but you can never really tell someones age without knowing what level they’re at.

“Next.”

They walk forward.

“IDs.”

Both Anna and Leilatha hand her small iron plates about the size of the palm of their hands.

“Adventurer Anna, you’re clear for a rank up. Congratulations. You are now Bronze Rank.” (Last names are not used amongst Adventurers due to the idea that by becoming an Adventurer you leave behind all relations with clans, nobles, kingdoms, and politics. The only thing that matters here is rank.)

“Are there any goods that you wish to trade in?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The clerk woman nods, “Place them in the tray.”

They begin placing their loot in the tray, but when each item hits the tray it disappears. After about ten minutes of dumping out all the loot they gathered during their trip, which was surprisingly a lot, they closed their bags and signaled to the lady that was all they had.

“Hmm, quite a bit. That comes out to 23,700 credits. Do you want to leave them as credits or exchange?” (Credits are a form of currency used by the Adventurer’s Enclave. They are used to purchase missions or rare goods that only the Adventurer’s Enclave, however you can exchange them for gold if you wish to trade with the merchants outside of the Adventurer’s Hall.)

“Please exchange 10,000 credits. Leave the rest in the party account please.” (The party account is a shared account which accumulates all the credits a party earns while contracted together. When the party disbands, the credits are distributed to their personal accounts evenly.)

The clerk woman nods, and 100 gold coins appear on the tray in front of the counter. (Exchange rate is 100 credits to 1 gold)

“Alright, will there be anything else?”

“Uhm, yes. We would like to inform the Adventurer’s Enclave that we found a child in the Eternal Night Forest. We don’t wish to send him off to one of the villages, so we were wondering if we could register him as member of our party?”

The clerk woman pauses for a moment.. Then she leans over the counter to get a look at the child.. (Gold eyes.. Cat ears and tail.. Surely this is the kid right? I’ll need to contact the head.)

“Please wait one moment, don’t move. Stay right there. I need to contact the Head of the Adventurer’s Hall.”

Both Leilatha and Anna look at each other with shocked expressions. The Head of the Adventurer’s Hall? Only top ranked Adventurer’s would ever see him, but for some reason this lady needs to talk to him about Nova? Truly something is going on here..

“Ehem. Miss Leilatha and Miss Anna would you please proceed up the stairs to the fifth floor, the Head would like to have a word with you. And don’t think about leaving, you won’t be able to.”

Scary. Definitely scary. Both Anna and Leilatha are incredibly scared. They were given no choice but to meet the head. Nova and Bahina are both confused and cautious since they were scared, but they had no choice but to follow them.

At the stairs of each floor of the adventurer’s guild were incredibly power guards. Guards at the level that could kill both of them as easily as crushing a bug. Yet here they were, walking up the stairs after the guards parted for them without even a word as to who they were.

On the second floor was a more decorated environment with a lounge of sofa’s and tables for people to sit at. As they walked past everything to the next set of stairs, they gathered a few looks, but seeing them going to the stairs with the guards parting for them, no one said anything.

The third floor was even more luxurious, with fancy sofas and lounges and even a bar with waitress serving food and drinks. But they walked past it all, up to the next set of stairs.

The fourth floor was completely empty of people, but it was decorated in a way that it felt like it was made for a king. The wait-staff working there all stood at their positions, awaiting the customers that rarely ever come.

Finally, they reached the fifth floor, which the staircase ended at the top in a hallway. They walked down the hallway and stood in front of a large set of doors. When they got there the guards standing next to it opened it for them.

Inside was an office with soft, brown fur carpeting. The sides of the offices held some fancy weapons, but there were no things like bookcases that usually filled an office. At the end of the office was a large window which stood behind a large desk. The desk was carved out of a beautiful, dark brown wood.

Behind the desk was a massive man, with muscles that rippled and pushed against his skin. He had massive twin horns protruding from the mass of dark brown hair extending to the man’s neck. He watched both Anna and Leilatha enter his office, then stand there at the doorway with shocked expressions.

“Well?” His voice rings out in a burly, over-powering voice, “Are you just going to stand there or are you coming to come sit down?” He says with a chuckle at the end, gesturing to the couch thats positioned in front of his desk.

“AH! Forgive me Hall Head, It was rude of me to stare.” Leilatha quickly bows while forcing Anna out of her still shocked look to bow too.

“Ah, right. Forgive me Hall Head.” Anna has snapped out of her stupor.

“Enough. Come sit.”

They immediately walk to the couch and sit down, with Anna and Leilatha sitting on the left side and Nova on the right with Bahina positioned next to him at the edge of the couch.

The man looks away from Leilatha and Anna and stares at Nova. Nova suddenly feels shivers shake his whole body from the man’s gaze.

Nova, having never been in a situation like this, nor does he know about the position of the man in front of him, does the only thing he knows to do when he feels threatened.

He immediately activates feral form and growls at the man, while giving him a fierce wary look. Bahina, also sensing danger, is in a pouncing position while giving a low, rumbling growl from her throat.

“Ahahaha! Certainly you are the kid, such a fierce attitude. Even able to use feral form at a such a young age? Remarkable.” He then shifts his gaze back of to Anna and Leilatha, “Alright, I’ll need both of you to tell me everything about how you found him, and everything about him since you found him. Don’t leave anything out.”

For the next hour both Anna and Leilatha told him about how the found Nova chasing a Moon Rabbit; about how they learned he had been raised by an Azure Tiger which is the mother of the Azure Tiger next to him; about how he could only understand monster language the best and not common; about how he fought the Purple Devil Lizards and almost died; about how Leilatha has begun teaching him all sorts of things; and about how they want him to join their party so they can keep him with them instead of sending him off to a village.

The whole time Nova is still glaring at the man, although he is no longer is in feral form. And the man silently listens to everything Anna and Leilatha tell him without interrupting. At the end he nods slightly while putting his hand to his chin to think for a minute.

“Alright, I will permit you to let him join your party, but you cannot take him out of this outpost. You can teach him whatever you want, but you must not physically train him in any fighting. Also, you must have him form a Hunter’s Bond with the Azure Tiger next to him. If people found out that a loose Azure Tiger was walking around the outpost there would be pandemonium. That is all, understood?”

“”Yes sir.”” Both Anna and Leilatha answer without any debate. Although Leilatha is thanking him in her heart for not taking Nova away.

“Alright, you may leave.”

They both get up and walk towards the door while Nova and Bahina follow along behind them confused while still glancing at the man behind the desk. When he looks at the man, the man is staring straight in his eyes, giving him a smile. Nova immediately runs out the room.

….

Inside the office, the man is sitting at his desk. “*Sigh* Guess I gotta write the letter, getting it to the bastard is going to be troublesome though..” He begins writing on a blank sheet of paper, while thinking quietly to himself…

….

Anna and Leilatha immediately leave the Adventurer’s Hall and head straight for the agreed upon inn that Muiredon, Anderson, and Amber should be waiting at.

At a table in the bar area of the inn on the ground floor, Anna and Leilatha are retelling the events that happened while they were in the Adventurer’s Hall. Everyone is giving Nova odd looks, trying to figure out the secret as to why the head would have an interest in him..

“Well.. He obviously doesn’t want us to take Nova anywhere. So he must be waiting for someone that knows Nova to come for him. But whether that person is good or bad.. who can say.” (Anderson)

“You think so too? I can’t imagine the Head of the Adventurer’s Hall would give Nova up to some noble who wants him even if it was for money.” (Leilatha)

“Hmph, any bastard who tries to take Nova from us isn’t going to get him easy. I’ll bury them in the ground down to their necks before I let them harm Nova.” (Amber)

“Right. We can’t just abandon Nova after all this time. We’re the ones who brought him here, so we’re partly responsible for what happens to him.” (Anna)

“What are ye lasses complaining about? He agreed to let the lad join our party didn’t he? I doubt the man’s going to go against the own rules of the Adventurer’s Enclave to forcibly take the lad from us without our agreement.” (Muiredon)

“Ah! That’s right! Nova belongs to us now! Even if an entire Kingdom wanted him, they couldn’t take him and risk insulting the Adventurer’s Enclave.” (Anna)

“Right, but there’s still going to be someone coming for him. For what purpose, I can’t say.” (Anderson)

“We’ll just deal with it when the time comes, but for now, Nova is one us! We should be happy! Aww, cmere Nova!” (Amber)

“Right, Nova is in our party now. We should celebrate!” (Leilatha)

For the remainder of the night, they cast aside their concerns and worries over today’s events. The girls cuddled Nova and fed him all kinds of things while Anderson would play songs in the bar. Muiredon drank heavily while chatting with other dwarves he knew.

At one point when Amber got up to grab more food, a man tried to hit on her but before he could even finish his line he was already on the floor in tears as he held his groin in pain. She simply gave him a smile, and stepped over him saying that Nova is far better than a weak man like him.

And so concludes the events that led to Nova joining his first party of adventurers..

Nova Chapter List