After waiting in line for about 30 minutes, far longer than the smallish line would have you believe which really did make me feel this was like a DMV, I was finally next in line to register to become an adventurer. Although I was beginning to wonder if not having any documents on me would pose a problem for the two of us…

“NEXT!”

Walking up to the clerk once she had given her signal, I couldn’t help but feel nervous as I approached her. Honestly, I swear everytime I have to talk to someone sitting behind a counter with a dead-eye look I always end up feeling nervous and flubbing my words when I talk.

Gathering my courage and repeating the sentence that I would be saying over and over in my mind, I approached the rather intimidating woman manning the counter. Unlike the often times beautiful girls that seem to fill the offices of clerks in adventurers-guilds across different media, the woman who was waiting for me with a tired expression was a rugged looking woman who very clearly had either been an adventurer or had experience battling.

“Good Morning, the two of us would like to apply to become adventurers.”

Taking a good look at the two of us, the woman responded to my statement saying:

“Do you two have any documentation?”

“No…”

“Can you read and write?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then fill this out for me please. Make sure all information is factual or you could face fines and potential imprisonment for providing false information to the guild. Once you’ve finished filling this out, you can line up again and begin registration.”

“O-ok”

…

……

What type of bureaucratic bullshit is this! Is this really an adventurers guild? Does she really expect me to wait another 30 fucking minutes! It probably would have been better to say I couldn’t read or write, I’m pretty sure I saw that the guy in front of filling this form out with the woman’s help. Look! The next guy is line is having this stupid form being read to him by the woman!. This is total discrimination against literate people! And what’s with that bullshit about providing false information, how the hell can they even tell someone’s lying when most people shouldn't even have any fucking documents! Plus, aren’t there supposed to be a bunch of runaway peasants here, why the hell do they even care what name someone uses!

Continuing to curse inside my mind, I begrudgingly filled out the form as Ailya did the same next to me while being wary of my temper. Once we had finished filling out the form in about 5 minutes, we once again lined up as we now waited around 45 minutes In which I had prepared myself to give the woman a piece of my mind, before once again coming face to face with the very intimidating looking woman…

Yeah, I’m not all that angry after all…

“Here is the forms you wanted us to fill out.”

“Let me see. Let’s start with you.”

Pointing at me with the clipboard in her hand, the woman began reading out:

“Name, Alex Morgan. Place of origin, Palma. Date of birth, unknown. Age, 17. Occupation, Mage…”

Narrowing her eyes as she continued perusing the rest in silence, the woman took another look at Ailya and me before gathering both of our forms and excusing herself as she headed to a room in the back.

After about 10 minutes of waiting, the woman came back with a rather nice looking young man as he said:

“Good morning young ladies, looking at your forms, it says the two of you are staying at The Red Swan. Is that correct?”

“Uh, yes. It is.”

“Then you should have talked to Dean right?”

“If you’re talking about the receptionist at the lobby then yes.”

“Yes, that’s him. Here, why don’t you two follow me so that we can move on the next parts of your registration.”

“Uhhh, okay? Where are we heading to?”

“Just to take some quick measurements from the two of you, it won’t take long. I promise.”

Measurements? Why do they need my measurements? Are they supposed to be written on my adventurers license?

Walking around to the door which let us pass to the rest of the building, we followed the tall blonde man as he began making his way to the second floor.

Passing through the hallway where a few people could be seen, we made our way to a private room as the man opened the door for us and ushered us in before he himself came in and closed the door.

Looking around the rather large room, I could see a variety of equipment laid out as I began to feel slightly nervous about what exactly we were measuring. Flinching as a result of the sudden hand placed on my shoulder, I turned my head to look at the man who had put his hand on me as he said:

“Don’t be so nervous now, this is all standard procedure to gauge a person’s level. Check their stats, skills, and abilities. And their possible potential. Although I don’t think the two of you are at a high enough level for the latter to be measurable. Come, take a seat you two, I’ll handle everything from here on out.”

As he finished saying this, the man began making his way to the side of the room as he began gathering an assortment of equipment. Taking a seat at the table in the middle of the room where he had indicated for us to sit. I nervously sat as the possibility that the ridiculous and not at all suspicious skills and abilities I had might become exposed.

As the man began to set up the equipment, my brain was formulating a plan for how the fuck to get out of this situation. I couldn’t understand how I seemed to constantly get into troublesome situations, but I was beginning to become sick and tired of getting into them as well as the fact that I was too weak to properly do anything to get my ass out of them.

Taking another good look at the man, and then remembering the woman as well as the other guild employees that I had been able to see, I was more than aware of the fact that every single one of them seemed to be either a veteran adventurer or had substantial battle experience. There was no doubt that the man in front of me was most likely a rather capable fighter, and that this wasn’t really a situation I could easily escape from. Even if I tried to use [Soul Devourer] to weaken him, there was no way Ailya and I would be able to hold the man off for the few seconds needed to weaken him enough for us to finish him off. And revealing [Soul Devourer] might end up being a rather stupid move if we can’t guarantee killing him off.

Not giving me enough time to think of an alternative solution, the man had finished setting everything up as he took a seat opposite to us and said:

“Now Miss Alex, why don’t you put your hand here so we could take a good look at your stats…”