(A wagon on the road, Zhenya POV)

*Thump*

The wagon once again bounces on the uneven dirt path throwing my body in the air breaking my concentration from the book I was looking at, I can’t read the words in the book but instead, I find myself pulled in by the colorful and fantastical pictures.

Even though I can’t understand the words, I can still understand the story since there is always a picture right next to the words showing what happens.

It shows a girl in a red hood receiving food from woman than heading down a trail, along the way there is shadow stalking her every step of the way before disappearing back into the shadows, at the end of the trail is a high-class house and upon entering the house the girl in the red hood approaches a very odd hairy person lying down on a bed, suddenly the odd person leaps toward the girl swallowing her whole, the odd person this whole time was a horrible monster in waiting.

*thump*

Even though I didn’t understand the story, I understood that the girl was tricked by the monster and eaten, but hope was not lost as a heroic man wielding an ax entered the house and slew the monster saving the young girl and an old woman that was stuck in the monster's belly.

The story is always thrilling and unique that no matter how many times I look through it never gets stale.

*thump*

I feel grateful for the nice people who gave me this book, in addition to giving me this book for free, they even showed me how to get to the dungeon town, let me stay awhile with their caravan, fed me and even gave me a map to boot even though I was a complete stranger, for that I wish them the best of luck with their expedition up north.

But I wonder why they would want to head north, most people want to leave the north and head south, there are no more minerals in the mountains so many of the mines have closed down, food is scarce and bandits roam around like they own the place…

While lost in thought the thumping stops and the wagon comes to a grinding halt.

“Last Stop new dungeon town!” the coachman calls out in a loud trained voice to let everyone know that they have reached their destination.

But before leaping off the wagon I decide to put my armor back on, its normal leather body armor with small pieces of metal on it to protect vital areas, grabbing Pa’s long sword which was well maintained and the sack that had all things I decided to bring, now I was finally ready to take my first step towards becoming an adventurer.

Leaping off the wagon I’m greeted by a huge wooden wall ways away from me proudly protecting the town, and lines of people and wagons waiting to get into the town, lining up I start to slowly but surely make my way to the checkpoint that the town has instead of a gate.

When I finally made it to the front of the line, I tried to walk into town but was suddenly stopped by the guard that was posted at the checkpoint “miss please show me any form of identification.”, the guard asks me in a gruff voice and since he was taller than me he had to look down to meet me eye to eye making him seem imposing even if he wasn’t trying to be.

Also, the guard had a ferocious looking face, bald head and bulging muscles that just screamed tough guy, given the imposing atmosphere that was coming from the guard and how suddenly he stopped me, “ i- i- identification?” I could only timidly squeeze out a single word.

“Yeah, identification young miss something like adventurer identification, a letter of introduction or a citizen’s id, anything that can tell me who you are and where you come from.” The guard replies to the question I squeezed out and perhaps noticing he may have surprised me and my nervousness takes a step back.

I look through my belongings, finding nothing that can serve as identification, “hmmm sir, I don’t have anything like that.” I notify him hoping that I can get in another way.

As if to answer my hopeful look the guard replies, this time in a more professional manner, “well miss you could always pay some gold to register as a citizen of this town and get identification.”

Giddy at having my prayers answered I pull out a small sack were I keep my gold, only to realize that I just spent most of my money on the wagon ride, “eh hahaha sir how about a discount.” I can only let out an awkward laugh.

The guard only lets out a small grimace towards my actions, “girl if you don’t have any identification or money am going to ask you to leave your holding up the line.”, the guard now steps towards me again and releases his imposing aura, and continues “look am not heartless here’s some bread, cheese, and jerky it should last until you make back up north.”

Am taken aback by the guard's comment, how did he know I was from the north?

Noticing my confusion the guard explains, “The only people who don’t have any identification are the exiled, the dungeon people and the people from the north. You’re too young to be an exiled and to human to be one of the dungeon people, so naturally, you must be from the north.”

I stand there frozen lost on what I should do, no way was I going to return back home after Ma and Pa gave me their blessings, I start to wonder if I can run past the guard, loss’em by ducking into alleyways and hide for an awhile until they forget about me.

While I plot out my master plan the guard start to visually lose his patience for me, “Look, girl, this is the last time am going to say this, take this food and leave and head back home, you're holding up the whole line.”

The guard starts to by subtly shaking his spear, showing that he may resort to physical means if I don’t leave the line, I guess I have no choice but to…

“Hold it!” a voice suddenly rings out

I start to look for the voice only to notice a tall woman with black hair suddenly appearing right next to me, “ekkkkk!” I scream in surprise and jump back, this woman wasn’t normal, she made no sound and I didn’t even notice her presence.

“Ah sorry, I would like to chip in the money for this girl's missing for the id”, the woman says as reaches into her grey leather chest armor and pull out a few gold coins handing it to the guard, in return, he asks me a few questions and after a few minutes of fiddling with something hands me an id.

Confused, I stare slack-jawed at the woman, she didn’t seem to be rich or someone with a lot of gold, she had long dirty black hair that ran down to her back, tied into a ponytail to keep it from hindering her vision, grey leather armor was scarred and a shabby short bow that seems to be in a state of disrepair.

The woman seeing my expression lets out a wry smile and signals to start walking, passing the checkpoint, we start to head down a large street in the middle of town, passing by numerous people and large buildings, the woman opens her mouth and starts talking, breaking me out of my state of confusion.

“I really got to thank you for the line.” She points back at the long line that I seem to have caused by taking up so much of the guards time, “it was a real time saver, a few gold coins, and a good deed, to skip the line, sign me up any day.”

With that she quickly says her goodbyes and starts to leave, realizing that I don’t even know her I try to ask her, but she was already gone and out of sight.

“Well looks like am alone again.”

Not knowing where I should go to become an adventurer, I find myself heading towards the center of town seeing as there a lot of people gathering there.

“Behold! By our power, we shall turn this horrid bloodied land back to how nature intended using the rite of cleansing.” A fat man in a tight robe starts to speak up in front of the large group of people while holding up a clump of red mud.

As the man finishes his opening speech, he and the other people in his group pull out a sack full of green powder and start to chant something.

Once group of robed people starts their chant the green powder they brought started to glow, giving it a bright green color and start to rise and swirl around the group, giving them a mystical feeling, after a long while the dust flings into the sky and starts to rain down, every time the raining dust touches the ground it would cause the ground to glow a greenish color, but the glow would quickly turn red before disappearing.

When the rain of glowing dust ended and the land stopped glowing, the fat robed man, now more noticeably tired, raises his voice again, “This concludes the rite cleansing.”

I really don’t understand what was going on but everyone started to celebrate, going through the crowd I tried asking various people, but they were caught up in the celebration mood to take notice of me, while I was going through the crowd I did hear some information by ease dropping, words like, “end…. War”, “nightmare… over” and “healing” popped up multiple times.

Noticing the sun was starting to set, and that I had no idea where to go to be an adventurer and I couldn’t read the signs posted outside of the buildings, so I started to dash in and out each building, with varying results…

On my fifth try, it seems that I reached my destination, as someone behind a desk said, “Welcome to the adventurers’ association.” with a clear distinct voice that could still be heard even amongst the rowdy sea of voices that the other guests were spewing as they drank and ate.

The man, who raised his voice looked at me and signaled me to make my way towards the desk, getting closer I can start to make out more of his features, the man had short curly silver hair and a thin frame, which gave him the feeling of a bookworm who would enjoy working jobs like these.

“What business do you have here?” he calls out to me now that we are face to face.

“I would like to become an adventurer.” I instantly blurt out and slam my hands on the desk in excitement, this would be my first step towards my dream, my grand beginnings.

The man nods and pulls out a sheet of paper and a pencil, “mister, mister I can’t write.” I should really try to learn how to read and write if am going to be an adventurer.

The man just starts to ask me some questions, like what’s my name and what skills I have, filling out the paper for me.

“Okay everything checks out, here’s your adventurer’s ident…..” suddenly the man was cut off mid-sentence by a thuggish looking man.

“Common Virgil look at that brats ash brown hair and blue eyes little shits a half-breed, hey if you kill her I bet Bargas will even give you a promotion.” the rude man starts to spew a stream of insult towards me.

The rest of the adventurers looked unamused by the rude man’s comments, Virgil not really paying attention to the rude man hands me my adventurer’s identification, much to the rude man’s displeasure.

“What the fuck are you doing you know Bargas issued orders to have half-breeds killed, are you going against the branch chief’s orders.” The rude man continues his rant bringing up names and statuses, but Virgil was unfazed by it and kept a straight face.

Before I can even find a pause to cut and counter the rude man’s insult Virgil cuts in and put his arm in front of me to indicate that he has this under control.

“That’s branch chief candidate Bargas.” Virgil says giving the rude man a cold glare.

“tch Bargas will become the branch instead of the bitch and when he does you’ll be sorry!” he threatens Virgil and me before heading out the door.

With identification in tow, I left the Adventurers association satisfied, now it was time to look for a place to sleep, since I spent the rest of my money getting into the town, I find myself walking down the various roads and alleyways trying to find at least a comfortable and out of the way to spend the night.

After a few hours of searching, I finally found it, it was a relatively clean dead-end alley between two wooden buildings that would work for one night until I find work, the moon was high in the sky, and finally, I rest my body down and close my eyes.

“YARGGGG” suddenly there’s a loud shout, opening my eyes I see a blade descending on me, quickly I roll to the left dodging his sword.

Getting my bearings I set my sights on the face of my attacker, it was the rude man since I knew words were already out of the picture I pull out my sword and get into the battle stance that Pa taught me.

The rude man brings his sword up above his head again and begins to slash wildly at me, his movements are stiff and swings are wide quickly I come up with a plan to use this to my advantage.

I put my back against the wall of the wooden building and when the rude man came at me with his wild strikes, I dodge his blow with relative ease, his crude sword cleaves into the side of the wooden building, and this sends a shock from the blade to his arms making him immediately drop his blade.

I run towards the rude man and put my sword against his throat, it was clear if he tried to make a sudden move he would at least cut himself trying.

*clap* *clap* *clap*

Hearing someone clap I turn around expecting that the rude man may have brought friends with him, but instead, I find a person with curly silver hair, it was Virgil.

“Bravo truly a display of skill” he starts to praise me, much to my confusion, I didn’t expect to find the receptionist of adventurers guild taking a random stroll in alleyways, so I had my guard up as he approaches me.

“No need to fear I was just making sure he caused you no harm.” Virgil calmly says as he puts his hand in the air, to show he means no harm, “Bargas’s cronies are known to start trouble with anybody they don’t like so I followed you to make sure you were okay.”

“Wait what were you gonna do if he was actually skilled!” I scream at Virgil as I tighten my grip on the man and push my blade harder into his throat but not hard enough to make him bleed.

“Think of this as a test for your adventurer’s identification, usually we test people once they apply but seeing how that guy was going after you so I decided that would be your test.” Virgil starts talking with a grin that most girls would swoon at, but right now I just want to punch him right in the face.

“Look I had absolute faith in you.” He starts to back off sensing my growing hostility at him, “okay, okay here how about I let you sleep behind the counters of the Adventurers Association until you get enough gold to stay at an inn, I bet that’s a better deal than sleeping in alleyways, we’ll even provide you with some blankets.”

Sighing, I reluctantly take him up on his offer since I was tired from the long trip and it was everything I needed, a warm and safe place to stay, I knock the rude man out using the pommel of my sword and walk towards Virgil, he hands me a pair of keys.

“These are for the back doors of the adventurers association.” he says a few concise words knowing that I was tired and wasn’t in the mood to talk with him any longer.

The moment I enter the Adventurers Association, I quickly lock the door behind me and just lay down on the floor not caring about my armor or getting the blankets that were promised to me, I close my eyes and instantly fall asleep.

(Back at the alleyway, Virgil POV)

“Okay, guys she’s gone.” I say silently to make sure no one but the people I was talking to can hear me.

From the shadows and around corners and other alleys ways come out adventurers, that I trusted, carrying people on their shoulders.

“How many people did that guy bring with him?” I ask one of the men.

“About twelve, really how petty can this guy get, all these guys and for one little girl.” the man just shrugs, really he was unimpressed about the skill level of these guys.

“Why the hell did you use that girl as bait anyways what if she was hurt.” Another adventurer starts to admonish me for my actions.

“Don’t worry they both had sword mastery rank 3, but that guy is known for being a slacking off and not training, so it was natural that she beat him, like I said I had absolute faith in her, and besides I even waived her registration fee for helping us with this matter” I explain myself to the concerned adventurer.

“But now enough banter, dispose of them.”