People were staring at him now that he was alone. He kept his head low, knowing that they were just curious about the idiot who had been loud as hell last night dancing with C-ranks. From what he heard, C-ranks were actually pretty high up in the chain of command. Madeline had been pretty adamant about her connections with Lidia, saying that just knowing a C-rank would get you a bit of wiggle room in the guild.

It made sense, considering the strength he’d seen from her. She had been able to heal a fist-sized hole in his chest, able to fly in the air, and even able to fight demons… And if Frederick was considered weak for a B-rank, to the point of being a fake, then Elliot wanted to cry. Even with only fists, when he had fought the possessed knight it had been like hitting his fists against a massive chunk of iron. He still remembered just how blows to the neck and stomach, blows that could maim or kill a man, were so easily brushed off.

When he’d been almost hit by that man’s fist… his life had flashed before his eyes. And that had been when he’d fought him weaponless! He mentally thanked Lidia again as he made it to the front of the guild. A small lady with an unimpressed look sat behind a counter, staring him down. She was a bit unnerving, as if she had way more experience in her life than her looks let on.

“Hello. I’m here to… apply for a job?”

The lady raised an eyebrow, before rolling her eyes. “Do you have a guild’s card for this city? You can’t use one from another city unless you have direct proof or someone with authority to vouch for you.” …Dammit, he should have asked about how he should have done this. “Ah, that’s not what I meant. I hear you can join the guild under certain requirements. What… might those be?”

Her face didn’t change, but he could just feel the inadequacy in his every word. Surprisingly, her face went from deadpan to a patient smile. “...Would you like to join under the ranking system or would you first like to have your skills tested as a means to evaluate your capabilities?” Capabilities? So his combat ability could be first taken into account? That seemed… a bit sketchy. He wouldn’t have to fight, would he?

“What does that mean?” He asked, rightfully worried. The lady’s smile twitched, and for a moment he felt something ominous behind him. He turned around in fear, only to find no one there. He looked up at the ceiling and then all around him, before turning back to her with a confused expression. His nerves must have been getting to him. He must have been quite the bother, because the smile on the lady’s face was faltering.

“We… set up a few tests for you to take. Would you like to take them?” He sighed, the ominous feeling returning to him, only less pronounced this time. Someone was looking at him, and they meant business. Was it part of the test to be watched like this, or had they caught on to what he was? Either way, this was way too suspicious to do anything. “...no thanks. That means I start as an F-rank, right?” Whoever had been staring at him must have liked that, because the ominous feeling suddenly disappeared.

At least that meant it wasn’t suspicion.

Along with the ominous feeling, the girl’s smile had also disappeared. “If you’d rather go by rankings then you’ll start off as an F-rank and climb the ranks as you complete more. Up until C-rank, you need to complete five quests above your rank to ascend the ranks. You only need one quest to ascend ranks after C-rank.” He nodded along, trying his best to remember the information. “Can you take more than one quest at a time?”

She nodded. “Up to three. You have to warn us ahead of time if you plan to do multiple quests above your rank, however. You can find them on the board to our right, hand over the requests you wish to fulfill and that is all. Oh, and please do be mindful of this rule… Do not attempt to complete quests you cannot complete with the help of others. Rankings are not a means to show off, they are a proper way to gauge your strength. If we find you fraudulently finishing quests we will ban you from the guild.”

He understood, it would be pretty scummy to have others work for him. She pulled out a couple of sheets of paper, handing them to him. “Now, please fill out”

He wondered who'd do that for a second before remembering the type of people out there. People willing to do terrible things to look good… the hypocrisy was not lost on him. He took the papers from her hands and went to one of the empty tables to sit down. Today the guild was a bit quieter, which was bad for him. It made it easier to overhear the people around him.

"He was with the B-rank, right? What do you think happened to his face?"

"Probably cursed. Though I don't think it was anything powerful. See those papers? He's an F-rank."

"F-rank? Then what the hell was he doing with the B-rank?"

Goddammit, he expected this but he had thought it'd take at least a couple of days before he had to worry about getting attention. For a moment he wished he didn't have his super hearing, the whole guild was talking about the idiot who partied with a bunch of C-ranks and a B-rank. He decided to fixate himself on the pieces of paper in front of him. It had asked for basic things like his name, weight, and height, but after it became a bit weird.

It had asked for his type of magic use, and he slightly remembered Lidia talking about inner and outer magic. Was one more well-received than the other? What was his magic even considered? He realized it didn't matter, he'd use his body in a fight either way, and he certainly didn't use a catalyst, so so he was an inner magic user in a normal human's eyes. The rest of the questions were simpler, the colors of his eyes and hair and other small tidbits like that.

Eventually, he finished and returned it to the girl, who read the pages and looked at him up and down. "Green eyes, huh?" He smiled nervously "I've been told they look gold under a certain light, should I include that?" She squinted, tilting her head slightly to look at him better before finally going back to normal. "You've got quite the pretty eyes, boy." She said, looking at the paperwork as if what she said was the most normal thing in the world.

Boy!? He was at the very least only a couple of years younger than her! "A-aren't we the same age?” he asked, warily. Was she a higher rank than him? Was that why she was acting as if he was just a kid to her? She chuckled. "Unless you're lying on your paper, you still need a good couple of decades before you catch up to me." He almost scoffed, before remembering what kind of messed up world he had been sent to, where men tear apart massive trees like they're made of paper.

"Anyways, everything is settled, then. Please make your way to the board if you want to take a quest." He wanted to ask something but the lady immediately stood and went to do something else. He watched on defeatedly, before turning around and deciding it was for the best. He'd spent so much time with people who seemed so kind that he forgot what most people were like. This was a good wake-up call.

He walked over to the massive board with pages haphazardly nailed onto it. Despite the papers being the size of a normal piece of paper, over a hundred were plastered all around the wall, some even being overshadowed by the others and being lost on the board. It was a bit overwhelming, but he couldn't deny the exciting feeling he got when he looked at it. This was money just waiting to be made.

He noticed each of them had a giant, red letter on them. A good chunk was F-rank to D-rank, while only a few, neater-looking pages were C-rank and above. While the other quests were cluttered and messy looking The C-rank and above we're neatly paced out and clear to read. Curious, he looked over to an A-rank quest, only to reel back. "Wipe out the black scourge in the fallen ruins."

The black scourge!? What the hell was that? He decided not to think about it and returned to the highest-ranking quests he could get at the moment. E-ranks. He knew this body of his was at the very least D-rank since he'd been able to go toe-to-toe with Frederick before. He looked at one of the pages with a D-rank category and… goddamit.

“Find my lost cat.”

He ripped the paper off the wall and looked at the reward. 2 silver pieces. If he did a few more then he’d be set to pay back Lidia for the room. He looked at the rest of the papers and sighed when he realized they were all menial labor. He looked at the F-rank quests and realized those were even more useless. “Please come to my house and help me clean and keep me company. ” A silver piece… Help!? Was the person going to help him!? Then what was the point of hiring him!?

He sighed, taking two more E-rank quests that had the same line of work. One for a lost dog and another for help with something called a “bugbeast.” He went to the counter and checked them out, and she told him where he could find them. With that, he left the guild to work. He’d promise himself he’d get Lidia her money, so he would.

_______________________________________________________

The air around him was rich with the scent of sweat and earth, but amongst it, he could smell it. A sour musk mixed with wet, smelly water. You think it’d mask the signature scent of the bug, but in reality, it only made it stronger which was fortunate for him. “D-do you think we’ll find him soon, sir?” He looked down at the young kid in front of him. He wasn’t older than 12 years old, yet he was insistent on hanging along with him.

One thing he learned about this city was that people were… strangely receptive to him. Much more so than the average person. When he’d hunted for the wolf-dog and the abominable cat, the families he’d met had always been a bit off-put by his appearance, and yet they invited him in to talk for no other reason than “it was polite.” He was thankful for the information they provided, and it wasn’t like he didn’t enjoy his time talking to new people… but the mere fact they’d let a stranger who hid his face into their homes…

Was there no crime in this place or something?

The last house he’d been to had even allowed their child to tag along as if that wasn’t weighing him down or anything. They had even offered an extra silver piece, which he couldn’t just leave behind… So now the little runt was tagging along. The scent in the air shifted, becoming stronger and more pronounced. The bugbeast must have tried drying itself off here. It was close. He turned to the kid and put a hand on their shoulder, forcing them to stop. “Ok, kid. He’s close. You’re sure it isn’t gonna try to kill me?” If he had to wrestle an animal his size into submission or get his throat slit by some claws again he was going to lose it.

The boy nodded. “It's my pet. Pets don’t hurt people!”

“...Tell that to the cat I just caught.”

He told the kid to stay put and went through the city corners, smelling the air until he came across a thing he could really, truly, only call a bugbeast. It looked like a giant pill bug, crawling over an apple and munching on it with it’s terrifying jaws. He froze, looking at the thing with all the malice in the world. He wanted to smash it under his foot. He couldn’t, though. The thing was a whopping 3 silver, more than he’d get doing any other quest.

It also seemed to be the easiest. The “dog” from before had tried using him as a… plushie. Considering how massive it was, he was afraid of what might have happened if he hadn’t had his demonic strength… The cat would have straight up killed him had it not been for his regeneration, though. They must have failed to mention the thing was half-demon or something because its claws sunk directly through his neck.

He almost caused quite a messy scene in the middle of the street, but he’d managed to control his blood just in time. The couple actually seemed surprised when he’d come back with it in his arms. They decided that moment to tell him the cat was a “bit jumpy” When the cat gingerly jumped from his arms and strutted inside the home, he decided not to mention what had happened.

Compared to that… this thing couldn’t have been that bad, right? He picked it up by its sides, groaning in despair as its many legs squirmed underneath it. He just had to remember about the silver… do it for the silver. With a deep breath, he ran back to the kid. The little bastard had run off for some reason and gotten lost but he’d been able to track him by his scent. He caught him in the middle of the streets with a worried look in his eyes.

His worry was quickly replaced with excitement as he saw Elliot again, though. “Pugby!” He shouted, running up to him and taking the bugbeast off his hands. In absolute horror he saw the kid hug it, the legs skittering around their body with a disgusting clicking sound. He wanted to faint. “Thank you for getting him for me! Can we go home now!” He had wanted to chastise the kid for not listening to him and running off but seeing the horrible display of affection between boy and bug had made him lose all motivation. He just wanted to go to bed. “...sure. Lead the way.”