Mmmmmmm

Man, that smells good. The smell of roast something is like heaven! Is this what they call homemade cooking? Is it because there are no chemicals or any of that unnatural stuff in it?

Honestly, I do not know and I do not care.

My stomach has been aching since I got out of bed.

I need to get my hands on that meat no matter what!

And it looks like Ari feels the same as me. She's practically drooling over there.

“I think we should get something to eat.”

“Yes! Yes! Let's eat now!!”

Alright, it's decided.

The inside is like a giant hallway filled with different counters for different things.

One section reads, “Blacksmiths” and another reads “Food”.

I have to remember to go back and buy a weapon eventually.

This place is like a completely separate world from the outside. Solely catering to the needs and wants of adventurers.

I really don’t like how crowded it is though. There are way more people here than there were outside. It's been a while since I’ve been around so many people. I don't want to be around so many people at once.

I'm practically sweating bullets just being here. What if they're secretly laughing at me? What then?

Ugh, we finally made it to the food section!

Oooooo there are so many choices! I don't recognize many of the choices though. I mean I see chicken and roasted corn. But there's also signs selling “Earth Wyrm”, and “Omega-fish”.

The omega fish stall smells good too!

It reminds me of the time I went to the beach once when I was a kid. You can smell the ocean!

But I don't think I should pick anything weird just yet. I only got here and I don't know the prices of anything. What if I have an allergy to something here? Man, that'd be embarrassing.

Speaking of prices, I have no money. Not only that I have no idea how money here works!

I should get around to asking Ari sometime.

Pointing over towards the chicken stall Ari gets the hint and we stop there.

“How many would you like?”

Man, this chicken man doesn't look like a farmer at all.

He's completely decked out in jet black battle armor with horns on his helmet.

Very strange.

His voice is wayyyyy too deep too. Deeper than any baritone I’ve ever heard. Why is this dude a chicken vendor?

“Five chicken sticks, please! For my card will relieve my fees!”

“Ugh...ID please?”

“Sure thing!”

Ari is reaching into her hat for some reason and takes out a card.

Wait!

Why is your hat where you keep your ID?

That's not safe at all! A strong breeze could rob you!

“Bronze huh? Sorry ma’am, but according to this, you hit your limit for this week. Does he have one?”

Oh, he's looking at me!

No siree bob!

I don't have a clue what you’re talking about.

But he said something about Bronze when looking at her card. Does that confirm that ranks exist?

Man this place is getting cooler by the minute.

“Ehhhhh?? Already? Bell where's your card? Today will you please feed this bard?”

Her rhymes are getting worse by the second.

Anyway. I don't have a card at all. This is my first time here. But how do I explain that to them?

I'll be wasting their time if I say I don't have one. I can already see Ari looking at me in disgust.

I bet the vendor is already laughing at me for taking so long to answer. Haha, look at this stupid nerd! Doesn't even have an ID! What do I even say to them?

It has to be an answer that tells them that I don’t have my card on me, Yes! That's the only requirement! All I have to say is I lost it! That's such a basic lie though. Any child could see through that. Man, I can feel so many eyes on me. Ughhh what to do.

“Whaaaaa? Do you not have a card? You're not an adventurer at all? Do you have amnesia or something? How could you have saved me without being an adventurer?”

Huh? Did I take too long thinking about what to say? Seems she gave up on rhyming too.

“If you're a newbie, go back to the front and talk to the receptionist. She’ll help you out. Since you're both new I'll get you both a stick on the house. You, newbies, remind me of some old friends for some reason.”

The battle-ready farmer is talking to me!

And he's giving us the food for free!!!

Talk about a nice guy.

Wait, we remind him of someone? That's a flag if I ever saw one yet.

How should I respond?

I guess a thank you would work. But I don't know the culture just yet. Maybe it's customary to say something else. Man why is this so complicated, I'm just getting used to talking to real people again and I'm thrown right back into middle school.

This is too sudden. Fuck it.

“T-thank y-yo-u”

There we go! We got it. Mission successful.

As he hands us the skewers, you can see just how qualified they are.

Now is the taste test!

Mmmmmmmmm!

I never thought that chicken on a stick could be gourmet but this guy pulled it off! This is a million times better than conscience store noodles!

The chicken melts in your mouth.

So goooood.

I’ll have to come back sometime for that.

“Come on! We gotta get you registered!”

Hey, don't just grab my hand like that!

Baaaahhhh!!

She's dragging me!

She’s dragging me!

I’m not your ragdoll!

The receptionist place is pretty standard for a front.

Nothing from what I can't remember from earth.

The lady running the place seems nice enough, they're wearing a green dress.

I guess those are the uniforms.

“Hello, how may I help you today?

“Bell wants to become an adventurer!”

Hey! I can speak for myself you know.

“Ok, I understand. Bell can you fill this form out? Then hand it back to me once you're done.”

What's this paper? It feels a lot rougher than normal paper.

Guess that goes to show the technological difference between earth and Celestia.

I wonder how old this planet is.

If society ran by gods and has been around for anywhere near as long as humanity on earth has. Shouldn’t Celestia be a paradise?

Anyway, I filled out the paper. It only asked some basic questions like appearance, age, name. I guess they don’t have the bureaucracy to need a government ID yet.

“Alright, there's one more thing you have to do to become a fully-fledged adventurer!”

“What's that?”

“Sign up for a job of course! Just take a look on the board and pick the one you want, of course, your rank is the lowest of the seven, Bronze, so choose one that's at or one above your level.”

Looking to the board there are only four tiers shown though?

Bronze at the bottom, then Irid, Ruthen, and Silver at the top.

“Excuse me but why are there only four ranks here?”

“That's because, at Gold or above, you get officially salaried by the guild itself. If you make it that far you're pretty much a career adventurer.”

Easy enough to understand. I guess my short-term goal should be getting a regular income. Becoming a Gold adventurer is my first big step!

I’m a true protagonist now! I got goals and everything.

Picking out which job is really difficult though. Everything here in bronze is manual labor. And they're all related to rebuilding that village. And I don't exactly have the strength to be hauling rocks all day for bottom-tier pay. I saw a gruel place when we were looking through the food stalls. Not something someone would choose if given a choice between gourmet chicken sticks and grayish mush.

Oh here we go! Something interesting!

“Guards and laborers wanted! Join an expedition through the Weksor Forest in search for the fabled legendary sword, Abaddon!”

I guess I’m still a laborer, but it's much more interesting than rebuilding a village!

Man, I sound like a terrible person. But can you blame me? I just get taken to a new fantasy world with adventurers and gods and you want me to pick a boring job like stacking bricks or something? Ridiculous! You're ridiculous!

Besides the smell of a pre sewer system city is starting to get to me. Some fresh natural air would be nice.

Taking a slip off and handing it to her was easy enough.

“Ooooh you're picking that one. You know this is going to be outside the walls right? There are some pretty dangerous monsters out there for bronze ranks. Are you sure this is the job you want?”

No going back after this. Not because I have any regrets, but because it'd be awkward to suddenly take it back after hearing about the actual risk. What adventurer runs at the first sign of danger? That'd be even more embarrassing.

“Yes, I'm sure.”

“Oooh Oohhhhh if you're doing it then I want to join too! Dragging sandbags all day hurts my feet!”

Why is she following me? She knows this is dangerous right? This isn't the kind of thing a self-proclaimed bard would take.

“Why? Aren't you a bard?”

“I just told you! Besides, They'll need a cook right? When you wander the wilds for as long as I have. You learn to cook food out of anything you can find, even brizzard calve!”

God, she looks so cute smug.

“Alright, congrats you both signed up! Since this is an expedition, please pick out a self-defense weapon from the list.”

Pointing to a paper next to her there’s a list of weapons you can carry on you.

Sword….

Bow…

Hammer…

Flail...

They're all out of nearly everything.

There we go. Here's something.

The Spear! I mean I can't think of anything bad about using a spear. You just pick and stab with it right? Plus if you're tired of walking it's a good staff too.

Alright then that's that, I'm a spearman now.

“Good choice! Bell… spear... You're all set! You can train your spear skills by heading over to the training hall over there and down the left. Here's your temporary paper while we make your official card. Welcome to the guild, Adventurer Bell.”