The day after he received access to the [System] and his classes, Michael found himself standing in front of Chuck first thing in the morning.

Despite his obvious age, Chuck’s past as a captain of the city showed. The loose linen clothes he wore did nothing to hide his still powerful build. His face, however, was wizened and had many wrinkles here and there. What was left of his hair was almost completely white and most of his face was covered by a beard of the same color.

His powerful and muscular arms were crossed over his chest as he regarded Michael with a raised eyebrow. “So… you gonna become an adventurer, brat?”

Michael nodded his head resolutely. “Yes, old man. I got the [Warrior] and [Mage] classes. I would be wasting my potential if I didn’t,” he said. He didn’t even hesitate to lie to him about his actual classes. While he appreciated the old man, their relationship didn’t go beyond employer and employee. Even what he had taught had been so he could do his job. While he was grateful for the job he had given him when others had refused, Michael knew that he didn’t owe him any more than that.

Chuck’s other eyebrow rose to join the first one as he whistled and gave Michael an impressed look. “Truly? You don’t see that combination often. Normally, [Warrior] is combined with [Ranger], [Hunter] or even [Scout] sometimes. [Mage] usually comes alone or with other classes that compliment the use of magic,” mused Chuck for a second before shaking his head. He gave a nod towards Michael. “I guess that you not becoming an adventurer would indeed be a waste then.”

Michael inclined his head before reaching back and presenting the longsword, wooden shield and bow he had been using for the past year. Chuck had given them to him to do his job and since he was not longer going to be working for him, it was only fair he returned them. Not only that, but Michael had enough money to buy some decent basic equipment and pay for a few nights at a regular inn while he took his first step towards becoming an adventurer.

Chuck shook his head and almost nonchalantly pushed the stuff back to Michael. “Keep them. I have many more of those and I’m pretty sure you’ll need them even more now.”

Michael simply nodded. While he was not going to be using neither the shield nor the bow considering his [Blader] class, he still could sell them for a few coins. And if he didn’t have to spend money on a bladed weapon for now, all the better.

“So… you going to hire someone else to help you out here?” He asked curiously as he strapped back the stuff to make them easier to carry.

Chuck nodded his head. “Probably. Though I doubt I’m going to hire a sniveling, skinny brat that barely knew how to tell left from right again,” he said with a grin and a barking laugh.

Michael also snorted as he shook his head. “Yeah, yeah. Fuck you too, old man,” he said and the two of them shared a short laugh. Michael grew a bit serious after a moment and extended his arms towards Chuck. “Thank you for everything. I don’t know where I would be today if you hadn’t given me a job five years ago,” he stated gratefully.

“Bah,” dismissed Chuck almost uncaringly but the grin on his face was wide as he grasped Michael’s forearm firmly and shook it when Michael did the same. “Don’t be going sappy on me now, brat. I just needed the help.”

Michael huffed a short laugh before releasing his hold on Chuck’s beefy forearm. “Of course, old man. Of course.”

“Now, get the fuck out of my sight before I start rethinking letting you go. Good help is hard to find nowadays, you know?”

Michael could only incline his head in agreement. “That it is,” he said before turning around and starting walk in direction of the massive walled city that could seen not too far on the horizon. “I’ll be seeing you around, old man.”

“Yeah, yeah. Try to not get killed by a puny goblin while you are at it, alright?”

“… fuck you too, old man.”

As he watched the talented and diligent young man that had been his helper for the last past year, Chuck couldn’t help but let out a deep, bellowing laugh. He could see that Michael was going to get far as an adventurer, the amount of effort and determination he put on doing anything he did certainly told him that. And that was when he was doing something that he clearly hated.

What would it be like when he worked for achieving his dream? Chuck could only imagine and he knew that he was falling short.

-XXX-

Two words that could be used to describe the Capital City of Orus would be magnificent and imposing. Orus had three prominent and characteristic features which were the ones people used to describe it.

First, the City Walls. With almost a million people living within it, Orus expanded for a few dozen kilometers on every direction and the City Walls surrounded the territory of the city in a circular fashion. Made up of concrete, wood and metal, a height of more than one hundred meters, with more than one hundred sentinel towers that were a few dozen meters higher across its length and dozens of gates that allowed the thousands of people that would come to and go out of the city, they were painted white, gold and silver and served as a deterrent to anyone… or anything… that even had the passing thought of attacking it.

Second, the Adventurer’s Guild Tower. Located right in the middle of the city, the Adventurer’s Guild Tower was a structure that rose hundreds of meters towards the sky. Not only was it the headquarters for where all adventurers did their business, but it was also built on top of the entrance to the Dungeon. Not only was it done for convenience sake, but it also meant that whenever a monster tried to go out of it, which had happened a few times in the past, they would have to deal with thousands of adventurers before they could reach the city. The Adventurer’s Guild Tower was pure concrete and metal, colored in different tones of gray and silver.

And Third, The Orus Royal Castle, the White Keep. Overlooking the rest of the city, the massive structure sat at the top of a small hill that was separated from the rest of the city by the Orus River, which’s waters ran through the city. One had to cross a massive bridge of metal, concrete and wood to reach the Orus Royal Castle. Giving its name, the White Keep was colored mostly white but it had golden and royal purple and blue colors here and there. The White Keep had its own walls that surrounded the holdfast and the seven towers, each one going even higher than the Adventurer’s Guild Tower, that surrounded it.

These three structures were the most prolific within the city. While they were others that were great in their own right, such as the buildings of the other Guilds and the headquarters for the City Guard, they just couldn’t compare to the three mentioned above.

Since he was an actual Orus citizen despise not living within the city, Michael didn’t have to wait four hours in the line destined for those that would only be staying temporarily. All of the city gates had a width of dozens of yards, meaning, that two lines for people that were coming and going could be easily be arranged with plenty of space left remaining.

Michael ignored the looks he was getting, none of them exactly flattering and/or friendly, as he made his way towards the booth right beneath the gate on its left side, which was the one used by citizens of the city. He only had to wait for a few minutes before he stood in front of a city guard wearing the dull gray steel plate armor over their white, black and gold colored uniform.

Under his impatient and derisive look, Michael simply showed him his ID Card. The guard took a look at it, snorted, wrote something on the book that laid open in front of him before giving him a dismissive wave. Michael shrugged his shoulders, put his ID Card back on the pocket of his pants and made his way into the city.

As he walked through the streets made of stone, Michael kept his head high and paid no mind to the looks of contempt and distrust he was getting from those that managed to get a glimpse of the color of his eyes. While his greyish white hair wasn’t something to write home about immediately, considering the other more outlandish colors out there, it was still attention grabbing considering that it was obviously natural. His golden orange-yellow eyes were still a cause of negative feelings in those that saw them.

Thankfully, there were so many people walking through the streets and most of them had their own pressing matters and business to tend to that there were relatively only a few people paying enough attention to him to see that feature of him. While Michael didn’t care by people’s prejudice and judgement for something he didn’t have control over, it was still annoying to deal with.

Instead, Michael focused on the structures around him as he made his way towards the Adventurer’s Guild Tower using the main street that directly connected the center of the city to the gate. There was one such a street for each gate. Michael noticed that most of the small buildings were made of wood and concrete though there were that had metal in their structure. He also noticed that all of the buildings were stores of some kind, meaning that he was in the Merchant District of the city.

The only other districts that could be plainly differentiated from other areas within the city were the Noble’s State, were the wealthiest citizens of Orus lived, and the Slums, where the least fortunate citizens of Orus lived. Other infrastructures, such as the buildings for the other Guilds, City Guard’s buildings, inns, houses, parks, religious temples, theaters, arenas and prisons were spread throughout the entirety of the city.

Truthfully, the real beauty of Orus laid in how… versatile was its construction and ‘organization’.

It took him a bit more than a few hours, but Michael eventually reached the Adventurer’s Guild Tower and as he stood at its base looking up, he realized that it was so high that he couldn’t even see the top from where he was. Michael shook his head too get rid of his stupor and began to make his way towards the opened doors of the tower.

That was when Michael realized something.

Other than some cursory and curious look, he noticed that those who were obviously adventurers, which could be determined by the way they carried themselves and the equipment they wore, were not put off by his looks. Heck, even noticed some women, and even a few men much to his unease, from different races giving him appreciative looks. That made him well up with pride and his posture straightened up a bit.

‘It seems like adventurers are a very different sort from most of the normal populace,’ thought Michael as he walked through the massive circular main hall of the Adventurer’s Guild towards one of the receptionist booths that was least occupied. He had a pleased smirk on his face as he did so. ‘Things are starting to look up already.’

Michael had to spend a few minutes on a line but his turn eventually arrived. A beautiful Demi-Human (Dog) girl with brown hair, matching furred ears, a slim but voluptuous figure who was wearing glasses and a professional attire that did nothing to hide her curves smiled politely at him the moment he stood in front of her.

“Good morning, sir. My name is Lupa. How may I be of service?”

Michael couldn’t tell her what he really wanted from her without coming out as an uncouth, blatant pervert so he settled with returning the polite smile she sent him with one of his own. “Good morning to you as well, Miss Lupa. My name is Michael Kane and I would like to become an adventurer.”

Lupa gave him a knowing look as her smile widened a bit. “Ah, yes. With the Day of Gaia’s Gift having happened yesterday, we’ve been having quite an influx of people wanting to try their luck at this profession,” she said before she reached down and produced a sheet of paper that she handed to him along with a pen. “Please, fill out this form to the best of your ability while I look for your guild card. Oh, and the signing up fee is ten silver coins.”

Michael nodded at that and handed her the exact amount. She gave him a smile before she stood up and Michael watched her until she disappeared behind a set of doors that were behind her receptionist booth. After making sure he memorized Lupa’s sexy figure for later use, he began to quickly fill out the form. It asked basic things such as his full name, place of precedence, date of birth, etc.

Michael finished before Lupa came back.

“Everything seems to be in order” she told him the moment she sat back on the booth and gave his filled out form a quick read. “This is your guild card, Mister Kane,” she said and then reached into her breast pocket and put in front of him a thick, plastic white card that had picture of him on the upper left corner.

He raised an eyebrow when he noticed that he had the same shirt on the picture that he had now. “How did you…” he trailed off when he saw her glasses gleaming a bit as she gave him what he recognized as a cheeky smile. He snorted in amusement. “Magic glasses? How… convenient.”

Lupa giggled a bit as she nodded. “Quiet. They make the jobs of receptionists easier to do,” she said before growing a bit serious. “The moment you touch your guild card it will absorb some of your mana and will display the general information of your [Status] plus your [Class] or both of them if you have two. As you rise in [Rank], the colors and design of your guild card will change to show that.”

Outwardly, Michael just nodded as he reached for the card. Inwardly, however, he was a bit nervous. He had been planning to keep the fact that he actually had four unique classes to himself until he grew strong enough to not concern himself with what people might do to him if they knew. There was nothing he could do about it now.

The moment Michael touched the card, he felt a bit of his mana being absorbed by it. As it changed into a dull brown color with a black line going vertically through the middle a [System] windows suddenly appeared in front of Michael, making him blink in surprise.

[This guild card is only capable of displaying two classes. You have four. Please, select the two you want displayed.]

Michael almost give a sigh of relief. While it wasn’t exactly what he would have preferred, it was still better than having all four of his classes in display. With a mental command, he selected the two classes that he wanted his guild card to show.

“[Blader] and [Elementalist]…” muttered Lupa when she saw them after the white letters that displayed his information appeared. She gave him a speculative and curious look. “I have never heard of those classes before. And you are already level 4, meaning that you managed to increase their levels once already…”

Michael felt the need to explain a bit. “[Blader] is like a [Warrior] class variant. It allows me to use any type of swords with a certain amount of proficiency. And [Elementalist] is a [Mage] class variant. It allows me to use two types of elemental magic,” he said, downplaying them quite a bit in order to make it seem like they weren’t too much a big of a deal.

Her light brown eyes gleamed with understanding. “Ah, I see. While I have never heard of those classes, variants for the more basic ones are known to pop up from time to time. It seems like Gaia and the World recognized your efforts and bestowed you with quite the powerful classes,” she complimented him with a pretty smile as she continued to look at him with plain interest and curiosity in her gaze.

Michael inclined his head at her, easily accepting her compliment. “Thanks, Miss Lupa. I will do my best to live up to the potential I now have.”

Lupa’s smile widened a bit at his words. “I look forward to seeing you grow, Mister Kane,” she said and when he pocketed his guild card, she raised an eyebrow. “Would you like me to explain the basic characteristics of The Dungeon now?”

Michael nodded at her. “If it’s not too much trouble…” He trailed off and turned his head to look behind him. He noticed that there were a few adventurers behind him but none of them had annoyed or impatient expression on their faces as they waited their turn.

“Not at all,” she assured him before adopting a serious expression as she began to talk in a ‘lecture mode’. “It’s speculated that The Dungeon has one hundred floors but only eighty-five have been reached so far. Each floor has their specific type of monster and a Boss monster of that type. While uncommon, variant types of the normal monsters and the boss have been known to spawn a few times as well.”

She paused a bit before continuing. “The Dungeon has a special capability that allows it to ‘read’ your essence and determine whether or not you or someone in your party if you are in one has defeated the Floor Boss. Defeating the Floor Boss is the only way to gain access to the following floor and you can only defeat it once every twenty-four hours. The reason as to why is yet unknown. Though I’m sure you know this, monsters drop Essence Crystals, which you can either absorb to get Origin Essence to level up your classes or exchange them here for coins. The amount of coins you get depends on the quantity and quality of the Essence Crystals you bring. Obviously, the stronger the monster the more quality an Essence Crystal possesses.”

Michael understood the information clearly. “Thank you, Miss Lupa. I’ll make sure to remember all of that. Though I won’t be entering The Dungeon today since I still have to procure some armor and an inn to stay at for a few nights.”

“Oh! In that case, here, take this,” she said as she reached down and produced a thin booklet that she handed to him. “That’s the Dungeon Monsters’ catalog. It has detailed information on all the monsters and Floor Bosses discovered so far. I’d suggest you at least read on the First Floor tonight so as not to get caught off guard by the goblins in there. I’m sure you have probably fought surface goblins before, but I assure you that dungeon ones are significantly stronger.”

Michael nodded at her and smiled thankfully. “Thank you once again. I will do my best.”

Lupa returned the smile with a pretty one of her own. “I know you will, Mister Kane. Is there anything else?”

Michael shook his head in the negative. “No. At least, not for now. I’ll look for you in case I have any more questions or doubts in the future.”

Lupa’s smile widened a bit as she slightly inclined her head towards him, a few locks of hair falling almost seductively in front of her right eye. “Make sure you do, Mister Kane.”

With a final smile, Michael bid Lupa goodbye and began to make his way towards the exit of the Adventurer’s Guild. Noon had arrived as he spoke with Lupa, which meant that he still had a few more hours to get some basic armor for himself and find a decent inn to not only acquire a room for the night but to also secure some meals, one of which he was craving right now since he only had some fruit and dry meat for breakfast that morning.

With a rumbling stomach, Michael decided to look for an inn first. After he secured a room and a meal, preferably at one that was located as close as possible to the Adventurer’s Guild Tower, he would look for some basic armor. He just hoped that his looks wouldn’t prevent others from giving him the services he required. He didn’t want his good mood spoiled after all.

Tomorrow he would tackle the First Floor of The Dungeon and take the first true step to reaching his goals and desires. From now on, it would only be a matter of time and how far he was willing to push himself.

And Michael was someone that never gave less than one hundred percent to anything that he did.