The guild hall was plain but well kept. The registration line was empty and they soon found themselves in front of a young woman with a professional smile. Era explained the situation and the woman told them about the registration process, a yearly fee and a certain amount of participation was required or they would be expelled from the guild.

This avoided people using the guild reputation without contributing but would also erase adventurers that disappeared in the wild, sometimes never to be seen again...

They used a standard rank system to determine the strength of the adventurers and the difficulty of the quests offered, those of rank F could be accomplished by anyone while those of rank S required a strong group of experienced adventurers to exterminate the most powerful monsters.

Completing quests allowed you to move up in rank and unlock more difficult quests, but failing or quitting lowered your rank. Ran saw on the extermination quest board the tetra bear alpha he had killed, a B rank mission, better hide the fact that he had killed one alone when he was only level 4.

Ran filled out the paperwork quickly and was informed that his card would be ready tomorrow morning. All that remained was to check his level and his various affinities for magic and combat skills.

Ran placed his hand on a Crystal ball that was brought to him, Era looked eagerly, wondering what aptitudes made him so strong, it began to glow with a soft white light when it touched his skin.

"This sphere will analyze you and extract information such as your stats, titles and abilities to record them in your guild card, only you can activate it but be careful, if you lose it it will cost you 1 gold coin to make it again. "

The receptionist explained this to him while keeping her professional smile, she must have done it countless times because she didn't seem to give Ran and Era the slightest interest.

"Let's see, your personal information is not disclosed here, but you can know your affinities, do you want to? It might give you an idea of how you can fight in the future."

Ran nodded.

"Well let’s see, your affinity for magic is...Nil!?"

Her expression shifted suddenly, her lack of interest replaced by utter shock.

"That's... Surprising, normally every person has even a shred of affinity for magic, this is the first time someone really has none."

"Is it that bad?" Era asked worried.

"No... I mean... That means he will never be able to learn new magic as a wizard or strengthen his body with fighting skills, I'm afraid he will never be able to reach B rank or even C rank without it... Do you still wish to proceed with your registration ?"

"That's impossible ! He already defeated a Tet...."

Ran interrupted Era in the middle of her sentence by putting his hand on her shoulder and spoke.

"Thank you for your consideration but there is no problem, are we done here?"

"Yes, please don't despair, even without magic many people succeed as low class adventurers."

Ran could see the pity in her eyes.

He understood what was going on, this world had given him the power to steal his enemies' abilities by killing them but in return he had no means of gaining new abilities otherwise.

His face tensed for a moment but he quickly relaxed and took a breath before walking out of the guild with Era. He told himself that he was not losing out after all, but knowing that the only way for him to evolve was through killing left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth.

The rest of the day passed quickly, Ran and Era sold the horses and the various parts collected from the bear to the guild.

Ran wanted to sell the wolf he had killed in the village but the other wolves kept the body this morning, each of the wolves came in turn to pay their respects by touching the still-warm body with the tip of their nose, then they pulled it gently into the woods before returning half an hour later, blood at the corners of their mouths.

During the sales, Era proved to be very helpful as she knew the exact value of most items and was good at negotiating. They spent the rest of the afternoon buying what they needed, seeds, farming equipment and various tools and materials that Ran thought the village would need in the future.

As the sun started to go down he followed Era to an inn she recommended down the road.

The city seemed to calm down and the streets emptied little by little while the terraces and the bars filled up.

Once they arrived at the inn, they dined together, laughing, drowned in the flow of conversation around them.

Ran felt relieved, this day of shopping had given Era a more cheerful look, she seemed to have forgotten her worries of the previous day and Ran had acquired useful information.

The level of technology of this world was not very developed, probably around the end of antiquity, beginning of the Middle Ages, but magic had many uses and partly compensated for this lack. The number of very powerful mages was limited, but the majority of people could use basic magic in everyday life to do things like lighting a fire camp with fire magic or reinforcing their limbs while cutting wood.

After eating, as the sun was starting to disappear, they decided to sleep in the place and rented a single room for the night, just to save the little money they had left. The bed had enough room for two, but Ran insisted on leaving it to Era, saying that the floor and a blanket would be more than enough for him.

Era protested at first but finally gave up, too tired from the day they had just spent to argue.

She took off her boots and leather breastplate and collapsed on the bed before removing the rest. She quickly fell asleep as the last rays of sunlight disappeared behind the wooden blinds.

Ran wanted to imitate her and enjoy a well-deserved sleep, but he had other plans for tonight. He waited, without moving, as time passed and the moon rose. Era was bathed in a soft silver light that illuminated her sleeping face, when he was sure she would not wake up, he got up and left without a sound, making sure to lock the door so she would not have any unwanted visitors.

He exited the inn through a first floor window and made his way through the dark alleys leading to the northern district.

It was time to make some money.