“Are you really going?” Asked Ann with a serious expression. Rex was stood in front of her with the bag he got from the goblins over his shoulder and the dagger strapped to his belt. They were standing outside of the hut, though he no longer wore the necklace Ann had originally given him. It wasn’t needed anymore. He now looked like he was eight, after another month had passed. He was taller than most his approximate age would be and was about the same height as Maya, who stood to the side of Ann with a sad expression.

Rex nodded “I’ve stayed here long enough.” The old woman sighed at that. He reminded her too much of her own self when she was young. Hungry for adventure and exploration. To see and learn new things. Granted he was much smarter and talented than she was as a child that didn’t stop her from making the connection. That’s exactly why she couldn’t say anything to stop him. Maya looked unsure of what to say either. Her only real friend was leaving after all. None of the other children in the village were around her age. They were either younger or older. And none of them had the same interests as her. That’s why she had grown attached to the boy who was her fellow pupil under Ann.

“D-Do you really have to go…?” the girl questioned, only to get another nod as a response. Nothing was stopping Rex. Both of them could see that. He was the type of person to go through with what he has decided. As such the old woman simply sighed again and took something out of her pocket.

“Here.” She said, putting her hand forward. It had ten silver coins in it, which made the boy raise an eyebrow.

“Didn’t you already give me enough?”

“Take all that as a payment for the item I asked for. Considering its original price, I’m honestly scamming you. Though I’m sure you already realized that yourself.” She said, still presenting the coins to him. The boy took them and deposited them in his right pocket.

“Technically you aren’t. You said I can stay until I’m satisfied. While I was here you fed me, taught me and gave me books to read.” ‘Even though you didn’t teach me anything about runecrafting until the end.’ He added in his head “It might be a bit cheap since I only stayed two months but considering the original deal was for however long I want. I’m just scamming myself.” The old woman smiled slightly, before breaking out in laughter.

“I guess you’re right. Don’t take too long with the core now. I can’t use it if I’m dead after all.”

“Didn’t you say you weren’t planning on dying anytime soon?”

“Ha! That memory of yours is almost annoyingly good sometimes.”

The boy sighed while holding back a small smile of his own “I’ll try to hurry it up.”

“Where will you be headed to first?”

“The town of Fyric’s pretty close right? I’ll head there first”

The old woman nodded “Good luck on your travels.”

“U-Um! I-!” the girl stepped forward wanting to say something herself, but having no idea how to word it she just looked down, trying to think of what to say. Rex waited for a moment to see if she’ll do anything, but when she didn’t he sighed and put a hand on her head.

“Don’t act like we’ll never be seeing each other again. I still need to come back and leave that core anyway.” He said patting her on the head gently once before moving his hand away. She looked up to him and just nodded, looking like she’d tear up. Rex sighed and turned away.

“See you again.”

“I better!” the old woman shouted at him jokingly and watched him walk away towards the village. She watched him until he was barely visible in the distance “Come on Maya. We have work to do too.” She said turning away and walking towards the hut. Maya followed her, without her usual cheerfulness.

Rex made his way to the village and as he walked through it he was occasionally greeted by some people though he only nodded in greeting as he passed by. He had become quite well known in the village over the last two months. He had done quite a bit after all. From delivering potions to helping people work the farms. All of it was on the old woman’s instructions and he was sometimes quite annoyed by it but he did it nonetheless.

The reason he carried the dagger was because he wanted to use a weapon in combat rather than his claws. He didn’t really know how people might react to his hands becoming a weapon after all. He didn’t know if Drakin could even do that. By now he was sure he was something slightly different. Though the fact that he might be part dragon was amusing to him. When he thought about it the image fit too well and hearing how powerful both dragons and Drakin were, he couldn’t say he wasn’t excited at what he could possibly become in the future.

He exited the village and took the road south-east. Fyric, the town he was making his way to right now, was about three days away by foot. To him it might have been less, since he wouldn’t need to stop and rest other than to eat. He had gotten a good night’s sleep so he could walk straight there through day and night. His bag was full of fruit, gathered from the forest as well as some dried meat jerky, courtesy of Ann.

All in all, he had about five days-worth of food, though he could always resupply at the city. The silver coins Ann had given him were called silver Rais. Rais were the currency of this kingdom - Hurria. Nobdody was sure where the name came from. Apparently the king that implemented the coins as currency decided it, but refused to reveal its origin. Each silver Rais was worth ten copper ones, each ten were worth one gold one. And ten silver Rais would be enough for him to stay at an inn and eat for a few nights. He didn’t really need it to survive considering he could just do so in the wilderness. But it would be a good start since he needed it for something else instead.

He walked along the dirt road absentmindedly, not stopping even for food or during the night. He was surrounded by green fields, familiar to him in color. Apparently the forest he had lived in for seven days was special. It wasn’t all trees or greenery in this world that was weird in color. That being said he already missed the enchanting blue of the trees and grass and the beautiful emerald green that was brought out by the rest of the colors. The green fields that stretched as far as the eyes could see were beautiful but not nearly as much, though he was happy that he was finally free to walk around at night as no monsters threatened to devour him and there were no people around to complain about it. He was stuck reading books all night in Ann’s after all.

At some point he started running lightly instead of walking. While it was just a jog it didn’t tire him at all. He was able to jog all throughout the night with no problems and around noon the next day, a stone wall became visible on the horizon, clear to his eyes though it might have not been as much to others. He slowed to a walk once again as he approached the town.

The wall, made of stone and standing tall, the towers even taller had a gate at the front of the road. It was, of course, not the only one but Rex didn’t know how many it had and where they were. He just approached the one on this side. A few guards stood at the entrance. They looked on quite relaxed, even bored. ‘A sign of peace.’ Thought the tyrant.

He walked by not paying them attention while they on the other hand widened their eyes as they noticed the scales and tail on the boy and straightened themselves trying to look like proper guards. As he passed them by without paying them any attention they sighed in relief. The boy’s ears easily picked that up and he contained a grin. Just like Ann had said Drakin weren’t something wise people would mess with. Even if they looked like a child.

The town was lively. People walked around the streets, stalls were set up here and there. There were some stores as well. People stared at the boy as he walked through the town, and carefully avoided him, obviously uncomfortable. It was understandably kind of annoying to have to deal with this bad reputation even if it came with some perks. At least he wasn’t some sort of race that humans didn’t like. Well. A race that humans didn’t like and weren’t afraid to express it.

Regardless he had something to do. He approached a guard who was patrolling.

“Hey. Where’s the adventurer’s guild in this town?” he asked causing the guard to notice him and suddenly go pale.

“O-Oh. It’s actually really hard to miss. J-Just follow the main street and eventually you’ll see a large wooden building. It’ll- will have a sign with a sword and staff crossed over a shield.” He explained nervously.

The boy nodded “Good.” He said before walking down the street. To be fair. As bad as the reputation was. He enjoyed acting this way. Honestly if he caused trouble in the city even if he was physically stronger than a normal human the guards would most likely overwhelm him eventually. There would probably be casualties and it would take them a lot of effort but he WOULD most likely fall eventually. Then again. If there happened to be someone stronger in the town that probably wouldn’t be a problem. The captain of the guard was also a possible threat since Rex didn’t know who it was. It could be a spoiled brat who rose up in rank through his influence or it could be someone truly formidable. Or adventurers could join in too. Now that he thought about it he probably wouldn’t even be able to cause as much damage as he felt he could. It would probably be another matter if he learned some magic.

But yes. Adventurers. There existed several guilds in this kingdom and others. They usually collaborated between each other, but the adventurer’s guild in particular was international. It was the same adventurer’s guild wherever you went. As for adventurers. They did pretty much everything and the guild highly valued the mindset of risk versus reward. The more difficult a job was the more money it would pay. That’s why they had the ranking system set up. From lowest to highest the ranks were E>F>D>C>B>A>S>SS>SSS. Of course those weren’t the actual letters of the English language. They were the equivalents as the language of humans was very close to it. The grammar was similar and although they had more letters than the English language, some of them served the absolute same purpose. Even the order of the alphabet was similar.

Requests of E rank were basically chores. They had pretty much next to no danger in them and were menial labor that anyone could do. Thus the E of E rank or so the tyrant liked to think. That being said. No adventurer was actually of E rank other than those who were being punished. Adventurers usually started out with a rank of F and could take requests of ranks E, F and D. requests of F rank were low danger requests that didn’t require combat but still had the possibility of it. Basically they were mostly gathering tasks in low-danger areas. By the way there were also gathering tasks in E rank but they were in no danger areas. In other words, mostly helping farmers with their crops or gathering something inside the city.

D rank requests are where subjugation tasks start to appear. They will be subjugation requests of a weak monster and they usually don’t ask for the elimination of the whole group but rather request a number of them killed in order to stave the flow a bit. Goblins were popular targets as they reproduced quickly but going into their lair to eliminate the source would be a C-rank subjugation quest rather than D. C-ranks are where things start getting more diverse. Both in options and in difficulty. Tasks involving labyrinth exploration started at this rank as well, though it usually didn’t involve clearing a labyrinth and if it did it would be quite the easy one. The request of the old woman. To retrieve a labyrinth core would be B-rank at the very least and would have to involve a VERY generous pay considering you would both be risking your life and handing over a valuable item you could earn a fortune off of if you sold yourself. Of course. He was basically doing it for free.

The boy sighed as he spotted the building and headed in its direction. People still stared at him. Getting to B-rank would be a pain but it would be beneficial. Even though C rankers could get information about and venture inside of a labyrinth, which he planned on doing. In fact, clearing the labyrinth and bringing back the labyrinth core as proof would be a good way to earn him a promotion to B rank on the side of completing Ann’s request. As long as that dungoen was designated as dangerous since taking the core of a normal labyrinth was illegal. If he did that the whole kingdom would be on his ass about it and he would have bounties up the wazoo. Even if the adventurer's guild wouldn't turn hostile towards people just because they'd cleared a labyrinth they wouldn't really stop the kingdom for putting up a huge reward for their head either.

The boy opened the door of the building. The atmosphere inside was much like a tavern. There were tables to the side where adventurers gathered. Some were drinking, others huddled around discussing something, some who were by themselves, others who were looking for company. Adventurers were just as diverse as the jobs they did. They were jacks of all trades but each had something they were better at than others. Some preferred doing subjugations. Others preferred earning their keep by selling information. Some explored dungeons while others preferred keeping out of danger and doing easy tasks. Some were gatherers, others alchemists, some even chose to take up the trade of a blacksmith.

The boy walked in. Nobody paid attention at first but then some people noticed him and quietly called attention to others, as a big chain reaction occurred, by the time Rex had made it to the counter, the place had quieted down completely. The one at the counter looked to be in his fourties. He looked at the boy. “Your business?” he asked seeming unafraid.

A quick look around showed him that most weren’t. They were cautious. But not afraid. This actually made the boy feel a bit impressed. Even the guards went pale at the sight of him. He supposed the country hadn’t had a war in a while if the guards were as they were. With peace came laziness, and with that stagnation. Adventurers on the other hand were used to dealing with adversity. It was in their job description... well at least for D-rank and up.

“I’m looking to register.” Simply said the boy.

“There’s a fee of two silver Rais for that.”

Rex simply took the coins out of his pocket and put them in front of the man, who took the two coins, leaving them under the counter.

“Alright.” He took out something that looked like a crystal ball from under the counter and put it on top. “Put your hand on this.”

Rex did so. The ball took a moment to glow green, causing the man to nod and take something else from under the counter, placing it on top once more. It was a form along with a bottle of ink and a quill.

“Gonna need you to fill up this with your information. Not all of it is necessary. Fill in what you feel like. Your name doesn’t need to be real either but keep in mind that in the adventure guild that will be your real name from then onwards and changing it won’t be simple.” He took something else out as well, a white card and a needle, placed on top of it. “I’ll also need a drop of your blood here.”

Rex was fine with the form. But he didn’t feel very comfortable with giving out his blood. Still. It should have been worth it. He just needed to make sure he would take care of it if it became a problem.

He used the needle to pierce his finger. He had to put in a slight bit of effort to do so. His skin was also stronger than a normal human’s, albeit nowhere near as much as his scales. He put his finger on the card and the blood sunk into it right afterwards.

“If you can’t write I could do it for you.”

“No thanks.” He said in a tone, almost like he had taken offense… which he had. Taking the form, he looked it over. It was quite extensive. You could write in your age, family, previous jobs. A lot of information could be entered. Even if not necessary. What Rex entered was simple. His name, his race as Drakin, and his gender as male. He put the quill down. The man took the form and looked it over.

“Rex Tyrannus?” he asked, causing the boy to nod in confirmation “Come back tomorrow for your card. You’ll be able to accept requests as an adventurer then. Welcome to the guild, kid.”

The boy simply turned to leave. While inwardly annoyed. Another night to be spent with nothing to do, the liveliness of the adventurer’s guild returning full force, if not stronger almost as soon as he stepped out didn’t make him feel any less annoyed. ‘Time for a really long walk, I guess.’ He thought before walking away.