Chapter 5

The adventurer profession in Hermathera is just as it sounds, a person or a party which accepts request from the guild for an agreed upon reward after completion. Adventurers had a grading system based on combat ability, experience etc. a newly appointed adventurers begin at 1-star and are allowed to accepts requests up to 2-stars. The grading system goes up to 9-star and each tier can accept requests up to 1-star above their own. A similar grading system is followed for the combat prowess of natural beasts and difficulty of requests. A party consisting of at least Five 1-star adventurers counts as a 2-star and so on. At the adventurer’s guild Kein heads to the receptionist

“Hi, I would like to register as an adventurer”, Kein said in a confident voice to the receptionist standing in front of him, she looked to be about 20 with long auburn hair tied up in a ponytail

“How old are you kid? is your coming-of-age ceremony even done yet? I don’t see a sigil. Underage children are not allowed to take the test. Come back after you’re 15 and if you still want to be an adventurer then”, she said while looking at him with an annoyed look

“I've had enough of these kids, looking up to adventurers and coming to register without even being old enough yet!”, she thought as she pointed Kein to the door gesturing him to leave, at this time she saw 2 youths entering through the doors of the guild

“Hey, Kein! What are you doing here?”, one of the two ran towards the ‘Kid’ standing before the receptionist

“Oh, hi Rayn, I was just trying to register at the guild but the receptionist thinks I’m underage”, He replied feeling helpless to prove that he is actually old enough

“Ha-ha, you look like a little kid, of course you’ll be mistaken as underage”, Prent laughed while looking at Kein

Having a smaller build that most of peers, Kein looked younger than he actually was

“Hey Carol! This is my friend Kein. He just had his ceremony yesterday and is definitely old enough to register”, Rayn turned to the receptionist and said with a smile on her face

“Oh, is that so, I’m sorry Rayn I didn’t know he was your friend, I will make the preparations for the test right away”, she said with a panicked look and headed inside the guild’s main facility

Rayn being one of the newer recruits had made a name for herself, propelling her fame and making her highly sought after in parties as she was a proficient healer, one of the rarest slots that most parties had none of.

“So, where is she?”, Kein turned to Rayn asked with a curious look

“He-he, so you knew”, Ursla who was waiting outside the door walked in with a smug look

“She also wanted to register with the guild and asked us to vouch for her”, Rayn said being unaware of the situation between them

“Alright then if this is what you truly want to do!”, Kein said with a slightly disappointed look on his face

“The test is ready if you will please follow me”, the receptionist returned hurriedly and said as she looked at Kein with slight disdain in her eyes

“The test is pretty simple actually, all you have to do is demonstrate your element and have basic general knowledge for the written part”, Rayn said as the group walked into the guild’s main facility

The interior of the guild had large courtyard with various equipment lined at the sides, ranging from swords to staves and much more. This was the training hall of the guild which was used by the adventurers to hone their skill and when need was used as the testing ground for higher star qualification tests. The group cut across the courtyard and was making their way to a room further ahead when the bright morning sun shining across Hermathera suddenly disappeared!

“What is happening?! How did it get so dark all of a sudden! I can’t even see stars in the sky-”, Carol gasped as she looked up at the sky that had turned dark enough to be a work of Obscurian. Amidst all of the darkness various shrill screams could be heard. Just as Carol was about to calm down, she saw a bright set of lights descending from the sky which were headed straight at the guild

“Run! Quick! Its headed straight for us!”, Rayn who was closely walking behind Carol grabbed her hand while casting a spell to create light and pulled her along. Just as she was about to start running, she realized that Ursla was emitting a faint aura and then disappeared in a bright flash

“Ursla? Where did she go?!”, Prent was walking closest to Ursla and saw it happen right before him. He was unable to process what was happening in the first place and was even more confused after seeing this happen

Just as with Ursla a few seconds later, Rayn also disappeared in a bright flash of light followed by Prent and then Kein

“No, don’t leave me here alone, take me with you”, Carol saw all this happening while the lights grew ever closer to the guild, her legs failed her as she fell to the ground waiting for the inevitable. Right as she was about to lose hope, she also underwent a similar phenomenon like the others.

Right before she also disappeared, the lights were already upon the guild and she looked up to see clearly what was approaching. It was a large device of some sort with flashing lights all over it, it was moving at an astounding speed and crashed into the guild hall and exploded into flames. The searing flames burnt Carol’s hands as she shielded herself from the force of the explosion and sprinted away, praying to escape from this situation. As she ran away, she could make out a few character’s written in an unknown language on the device that had just fallen from the dark sky: “Lufthan-”

Darkness engulfs Hermathera as the convergence begins. The two dimensions which were in conflict for the past years were now past the point of no return