(Adventurers association hall, branch chief’s office, Lyra POV)

Today is going to be crap, I thought this to myself as I woke up, lifting my head from my desk while drowsy and slow minded, yesterday was hectic, to say the least orphans sneaking into the dungeon even though it’s off limits, the training camp for the younger adventurers today and the worst of all is today is the day “that person” is supposed to arrive, the person who is in contention with me for the position of branch chief.

Well there’s nothing that can be done about the last thing so let’s address the other things first, as I was about to get up, Virgil lightly opens the door and steps into my office followed by two other people.

One was a man of average height with a pudgy build and red hair carrying a staff in one hand, using it as a walking stick, wearing frilly clothes which were adorned with gold and silver accents, it was actually kind of stylish, but it barely fit his large build so it looked more ill-fitting than anything, it really was comical seeing him trying to show off his status by trying to fit into those tight gaudy clothes, he really gave a new meaning to being an uptight noble.

This was Bargas, this man alongside me is the other candidate to become the new branch chief for this dungeon town, I’ve spent the night doing looking through his files ever since his lackey let the cat out of the bag that he was the other candidate, what I found was concerning, to say the least or should I say what I couldn’t find concerned me the most.

Starting with what was recorded in his files, Bargas is a minor noble from the western Duchy, being the third born son he was given a lot of freedom, unlike his elder brothers who were put under intensive training since birth to inherit their parents land. he lived a relatively normal life during his youth, well for a noble who was running amuck it was pretty tame, hanging out with his lackeys, causing several minor public disturbances and registering as an adventure (also he owns a famous clothing store that’s known for being trendy and stylish but this information seems kind of irrelevant right now).

Bargas is currently the head of an up and coming guild which is based in the dungeon city of Felschonheit, the guild is named “Flames Of War” which has made quite a splash in recent times, mostly in the dungeon diving aspect, while they have not made any new discoveries or mapped any new floors they have been making hasty progress towards those ends, these achievements have earned some sort of reputation with younger adventurers who are still inexperienced and rash, as they look up to the guild for their fast progress.

Lastly what I found out about him is his main skill is herbalist it is unknown how many ranks he has in it, but he does have a lot of abilities which would denote him as an offensive herbalist, who likes accost his enemies with binding roots and vines and various ailments like poisons, paralysis or drowsiness instead of healing his allies wounds.

What was off-putting about the investigation was that there was no information about Bargas and his guild while they are inside of a dungeon, no concrete information about their actual strength or how they fight, what formation they use. There’s also something off about their guild rooster, the strength of their members doesn’t exactly add up to the rapid progress their guild is supposed to be making, all of the registered members are all Barges' goons and lackeys, all of which definitely don’t have the skills to match their achievements, really anything about the guild besides their achievements are unknown.

The other man was mysterious, to say the least, there was no mention of him in the investigation report, I couldn’t see face as he was wearing a very loose fitting black robe which covered him from head to toe, but what I could tell about him he was very tall and most likely very muscular and had a good sense of balance as while carrying his weapon, a gigantic greatsword on his back, he was moving like the weapon was actually made of air instead of iron.

I didn’t expect Bargas to appear so early in the morning, I have no time to think out how I want to steer the conversation so I just throw out a greeting with a slight bit provocation which I hope works.

“Bargas it’s a pleasure to meet you, welcome to my office.” I think my little jab worked as he stood in front of the doorway for a brief moment giving me a glare and a little frown, at this I return a small polite smile back at him.

Seeing my smile his I notice that his glare held something else now, a small gleam of amusement as he stares at my face, instantly his frown turns into a small smile “Bah! You mean my office once I prove that am more suited to for the position than you”

Bargas continues his verbal assault while his small smile slowly turns into a shit-eating grin, as he starts to walk towards me “am at least dressed formally befitting of my soon to be position, you on the other hand….. Can use a little bit of a touching up”

Am a bit confused for second at what he meant, I was dressed in formal attire, the same one I would usually wear when working.

I notice that Virgil keeps pointing to the corner of his mouth while standing behind my two guests, seeing him I reach my hand up to the corner of my mouth and realize that there was dried drool. Crap I forgot I just woke up and must look like a mess right now.

Well, that just put the nail in the coffin, am no longer in any position to comment about his appearance while looking like I do. The best I can do now is try to get some time to regain composure and regather my thoughts.

I come up with something in head and swiftly say what I want before he has a chance to continue insulting my appearance “Then please allow me to rectify that right now, if you would leave the room for but a brief second while I make myself more presentable, it would untoward behavior of a noble such as yourself to keep a lady from “touching up” as you said” I say in as calm of a manner I can while wiping off the dried drool from the corner of my mouth.

Now standing in front of my desk Bargas stares down at me and at some of the documents at my desk before picking one up, “no need my lady I only require one small thing regarding the training camp today.”

“Now wai-“ before I can finish my sentence Bargas cuts in again by putting the document back down with a little bit of force on my desk resulting in a small thump.

“No, no it’s nothing extreme am just here to recommend a supervisor for your little training camp. Think about it an experienced adventurer from my “Flames Of War” guild will certainly do more good than harm.” He says in a confident manner, this man was up to something I don’t know what yet but it would be best to turn him down.

I stand up from my desk and put on the sternest tone I can to reject him “No.”.

“hmmmmm, even if this supervisor was recommended by a titled adventurer?” Bargas turns and signals at the mysterious robed man.

Seeing the signal the man throws off his robes revealing his identity.

********************************************************

(Adventurers association hall, main lobby, Zhenya POV)

I wake up surrounded by loud yelling and the sounds of people stomping as they walk around.

“uhhgggg, my aching body.” I groan in discomfort getting up from a cramped corner.

It seems I’ve been sleeping in an awkward position for quite a while and in armor to boot, stuffed In a cramped corner, I guess it was my fault anyway for falling asleep in front of the back entrance last night, but it was still inconsiderate of the staff to cram my body into a corner and continue on their merry way.

I get up and make my way to the front counter in hopes that I can find a job or something so I can finally start making some money, reaching the front I realize that I have no idea where to even begin to get a job.

Seeing if I can get some help I look around the room only to see a bunch of people sitting at the tables drinking alcohol this early in the morning, a bunch of people who were passed out from drinking so much and Virgil who was standing in the middle of a large crowd of people.

Noticing me out of the corner of his eye he calls out to me in his carefree voice “Heyyyyyy Zhenya over here!”

I freeze up as because of this idiot’s action all eyes are now on me, some in disgust like the rude man’s from the night before, some of the jealousy from some of the girls in the group and some of pity.

It really makes me wonder how a guy that looks like a bookworm even has admirers, though they are younger it shouldn’t be anything more than a tiny crush like when some of the girls back at home would swoon over some of the hunters, but to actually send me looks of jealousy?

It really has to be all in that smile I guess.

Trying to avoid any more embarrassment I just slowly make my way into the crowd with my head hung low and hope that everybody forgets about me, I swear the moment I get this guy alone I’m gonna punch him right in the face and give him a piece of my mind.

“Okay now that everyone’s here let me explain what we’re going to be doing today!” Virgil addresses the crowd in a more professional voice than the one he called me with.

Bastard is picking on me I’m sure of it.

“Today we will be taking a trip to the dungeon to learn the basics of being an adventurer.” Virgil continues his explanation.

The crowd bursts into murmurs and a slight sense of unease and excitement wash over the crowd, that’s when I realized that everyone else in the group must have just signed up to be adventurers like me.

“Your guides for this lesson will be me Vir…” as Virgil was introducing him a fairly bland looking man that was beside him interrupts mid introduction.

“And my name is Sabastian, a senior adventurer that’s part of the esteemed Flames of war guild.” Sabastian flaunts his status while he strikes a heroic pose.

A wave of excitement and awe comes from the group the moment he brings up being part of a guild, as am left wondering what so great about that, Virgil tries to calm the group of beginners down but to no avail, as Sabastian shoots him a victorious smile that’s brimming with pride, that he managed to steal the spotlight from Virgil, even for a moment.

While am glad to see someone cause Virgil some suffering, I would’ve even asked that man to be my friend for that, but for some reason he gives me a bad feeling every time his eyes gloss over me, I can’t exactly tell what he’s up to but it can’t be anything good.

“Ahem!” Virgil lets out a large sound to get everyone’s attention now that the excitement from Sabastian’s introduction has passed.

“As I was saying my name is Virgil, I work as a receptionist and this person who I think everybody knows by now is Sabastian, we will be working together to be to teach you the basics of adventuring” he continues trying to keep his professional face on.

Afterward, we start to prepare our items and supplies, and before long we head out the door and make our way towards the dungeon.

Walking down the main street of town, I can see just how lively a budding dungeon town can really get, bustling stalls with people haggling the merchants, the sounds of builders yelling at each other while working and townsfolk laughing and talking about a chance at a new beginning.

I let myself get caught up in the lively and energetic feeling coming from the townspeople to give me a push to try to make some friends with some of the other beginner adventurers in the group, I mean they may have gotten an awkward first impression of me because of Virgil, but am sure if I can just talk things out with them we could be friends.

I approach the group that I think I have best chances with, which were the ones that gave looks of pity after Virgil called out to me, this group was mainly made of boys.

“Hey guys am Zhenya, I come from the north and know my way around a sword, I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot because of Virgil but want to hunt dungeon monsters together?” I blurt everything out at them, but all that happens is that they turn to look at me dumbfounded.

I stare back at them waiting for their response, as soon as it was getting uncomfortably awkward, a boy, smaller than me, with blond hair who seems like he’s the leader, raises his voice breaking the silence.

“Uhm hi” the boy responds so quietly I need to lean in a bit hear him.

But the moment I do he pulls into his group, I struggle a bit but stop as I hear him start speaking again.

“This is for your own good and for ours as well, you can’t be seen with us and we can’t be seen with you” he whispers at me while were both hunched over and in the middle of his group.

I already kind of expected that the other two groups hated me, but I didn’t think it was to the extent that others needed to hide the fact that they even spoke to me.

“It’d be best if you just kept your head down for now, and maybe they’ll forget about you after a week or so” the boy aggressively whispers his advice into my ear.

I start shaking my head up and down to show that I understood his warning (mostly because I just wanted to get out of this awkward position) and because I just want him to let go of me since my back is starting to hurt from having to hunch over to listen to him.

Finally letting go of me he and his friends start to walk faster, leaving me behind.

Once I caught up with the group we were face to face with a hole in the ground.

“Okay, Kids this here is the dungeon!” Virgil stops and turns around giving everyone full view of the dungeon.

“Doesn’t look like much.” one of the kids from the crowd voiced their disappointment.

“ya this just seems pretty sad compared to the others” another kid in the crowd chimes in.

Seeing this Virgil lets out a wry smile, “like many of you know this dungeon is still young, unlike the others, most of you were still too young to remember but all dungeons started out as holes in the ground…… specifically but all the dungeon entrances started out fairly unimpressive, and this one is no different in time it’ll grow and become something really impressive trust me.”

Everyone still looked pretty skeptical about the dungeons appearance, seeing this Virgil added “anyways it’s what’s on the inside that counts” and proceeded to lead everyone into the dungeon.

I ready myself in a few seconds I would take my first steps into a dungeon.