Diablo was standing outside the Adventurers Guild. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to be in his nice, warm, uncomfortable bed sleeping until it was time for breakfast. But instead, it was not even the crack of dawn. A light dusting of frost was on everything that did not move. Although it did not snow around The Kingdom Of The Plains' capital, it did get rather cold during winter. That's what it was right now. The middle of winter.

It had been almost five months since his little escapade into the forest. He was now eleven. A few days ago, the Adventurers Guild had stopped by the orphanarium and requested that the child with the most Intelligence was to start working with the Guild. With a sudden influx of Adventurers. Word on the street was that The Empire Of Great Karn had a new Empress. A child of only eight.

Due to this, her 'advisers' where ruling in her name. They had seen fit to expand the borders of The Empire. Everyone, especially Adventurers, where being drafted. Thus, everyone without ties to The Empire fled. Adventurers where accepted without much hassle. They are always hunting monsters, making The Kingdom Of The Plains safer, and then investing the money back into the economy via drinks, food, and accommodation as they traveled. They were not the problem.

The problem was many refugees fleeing both The Empire and the Kingdoms surrounding it. But none of that was Diablo's concern. He was to work at the Guild. Serving drinks, pinning up requests, and washing dishes. The only reason they needed someone with high Intelligence was to remember everyone's orders, and the ranking system of the guild in a few days.

Sighing to himself, Diablo pushed open the doors and went inside. It wasn't like he hated the job. It was just tiring. Even with the Level Up, his Constitution was still only one. Thus he tired rather quickly. Both the workers and Adventurers told him it will grow after a few months of work, but one point would not make much of a difference anyway.

"Diablo!" One of the younger works called out to him. He was right on time, as always. Yet it always seemed he was last to arrive. He did not understand that. "Come here and help me unstack the chairs."

Diablo did as he was told. He didn't speak while doing so. The young woman that he was helping, her name was Millie, always made him flustered. She had the beauty of a spring flower, and she knew it. She often wore something known as a 'push up bra'. It made her boobs look bigger, and the young man whose hormones had just started acting up took notice.

The young girl also had long brown hair and a pair of bright green eyes. Those that didn't get lost in her assets tended to find themselves lost in those eyes. "Do you remember the ranks of the guild?" She asked Diablo as he moved to help her.

"Yes Ma'am." He answered without hesitation. "The ranks are based on precise metals and stones. They are ranked in order of rareness, or in the case of the gems, least popular to most." Diablo's voice was rather high pitched and cracked often. Though he managed to speak clearly when not looking directly at someone.

"They are as followed; Clay, Stone, Copper, Bronze, Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Adamantium and Rhodium." Millie had questioned him on this every single day, and other then the first day, he had gotten it right every time.

He then decided he wasn't going to play this game, and after putting the next chair under a table, he kept talking. "Clay and Stone are different because those that are newly joined are untested and break easily. Thus why they are given clay. Once they prove themselves they may be hardened, but are not anything special yet. Thus why they are Stone. There is also Diamond, but that is reserved only for the Guild Master."

"Very good. You are a good find. If you were a few years older we would make you sign a contract to force you to stay." Millie joked at the boy. Soon they were finished putting the chairs under tables. Contrary to most people's belief that all the Adventurers sit at one big table and just grab food and drink like some kind of barbarian, the set up was a lot more like at your average inn. Small and large tables scattered around to fit as many people as plausible while still giving people some privacy.

Although on occasion the larger tables were broken out. It was mostly after a Platinum or higher quest was complete. But they were rather rare. Other then that, public celebrations were another time the feast tables were taken out.

"Next up is the quests. You take Stone and Clay, I'll do the rest." Millie told Diablo. The boy only answered with a nod of his head. Stone and Clay quests were the large majority. Higher ranked Adventurers would often take five or six at a time and do them all within two or three days. It was a quick and easy way to make money. Clay quests barely gave coppers, but the Stone ones occasionally gave a good reward.

Due to this, most Adventurers were rather poor, often with miss-matching equipment. But it was never a good thing to judge an Adventurer by their gear, as they often had some if the highest Levels and Skills outside of the army, guards and Knight Orders.

Of course, Mercanries were counted among the strong, but due to their violent nature, they were considered barely any better than bandits by most. They often lived in worse conditions then bandits too. This didn't really help their reputation much.

After pinning up roughly two hundred requests on the request board, sorted form easiest on the left, to hardest on the right, the first of the Adventurers began to trickle in. They were the ones up at the crack of dawn. Most were Clay and needed to take at least two quests a day just to keep on living. A few were Stone, they were not in any better condition. Although they were more looking for long escort quests and the such. Easy quests that required minimal effort.

Escort quests could not be accepted by Clay Adventurers and were deemed too boring for most Adventurers above Copper. Thus most Stone rank Adventurers took them. Copper ranks did too, but at a less high rate. They had better pickings too, so they didn't bother coming in as early as Stone ranks.

"Oi. Boy. Git me a ale." A gruff voice called out to Diablo. The child's spine shivered at the voice. It belonged to an older man, roughly forty years of age. His name was Griff. He was a Silver rank, a living legend among fellow Adventurers. He was a spear user who was said to have a technique that could slay a [Giant] in one strike. But he had lost his right arm during a fight with a [Dragon]. It was during the advancement quest to Gold rank. Since then, he only took Emerald and below quests, as he had to re-learn everything all over again with a new weapon.

Diablo quickly went to do as the man told him. Griff had once whacked him over the head with the flat of his shortsword. Since then, the boy practically ran whenever the older man ordered something of him. Diablo could practically feel the old man's smile as he ran off to do as he was told.

"Ale for Griff." Diablo told the man behind the bar counter. Hall was a short man, or technically a half-man, half-dwarf. He had a long, black beard and a bald head. His face was squished together as if he was always sucking on a lemon.

The Half-ling grunted and filled up a mug with a thick dark liquid that was most definitely not normal ale. Diablo had been told it was some kind of Dwarven brew. He had also been told it was expensive and that most people couldn't afford to drink it. Yet it was the only thing Griff seemed to drink. Drink it he did too. It was like water for the man.

Once the young boy had returned with the ale, Griff was already seated near the unlit fire. "Well boy, bout time. 'Urry up and light the fire! I'll fucking freeze 'ere if ya take any bloody longer!" The older man ordered Diablo. It was not his job to light the fire, it was Millie's. But she seemed busy talking to an awkward looking teen who was either trying to join the Guild or ask her out. Besides, he wasn't about to ignore Griff and simply did as he was told.

The fire was already cleaned out. That was the last job of each day. Diablo grabbed a handful of wood shavings and placed them at the back of the fireplace. "Too far back. Won't git enough air." Griff told the boy, watching his every move.

Diablo could feel the blush begin to creep onto his cheeks. He moved the shavings to the front of the fire. "Wrong. If some bloody idiot opens da door for a little too long da wind's blow it out." This time the blush in his cheeks showed in full force.

Finally moving the shavings to the middle of the fireplace, Diablo grabbed the flint. He began to strike it against its iron other-half. "Make da shavings int'a cradle. Move da flint 'n steel closer t' da middle." Griff continued to scold him as he was drinking. From the noise the was coming from the cup, the drink was likely already half empty.

The boy simply did as he was told. He had resigned himself to being scolded by Griff every single step of the way. After roughly ten minutes of trying to light the fire, Diablo had gotten rather frustrated at it and resorted to using his magic. Gathering the magic at the top of his pointer finger of his right hand, he easily set the dry wood shavings on fire using [Candle's Flame (Lv.2)]

As soon as he had done so, he felt a hand grab his wrist with the strength of a bear. "The fuck ya think ye do'en kid?" Griff didn't look angry at the boy, merely disappointed.

Diablo almost cried out due to the pain, but some of his baser instincts told him that if he did that, Griff would most likely break his wrist. He had enough influence to claim that the boy had tried to steal his coin-purse and be believed. So he manned up and bore with the pain.

"L-lighting the f-fire?" Diablo answered, fear causing his voice to waver and crack badly at the end.

"Well now. I won't be see'en dat again. Mage-y types not be very welcome round these parts. Snotty bunch o' twats they be. Ya be work'en 'ere, ya do it like da rest o' us. Got it?" As Griff spoke, he held his hand over the flegling flame and pressed down, snuffing it out.

"Do it again. Proper like dis time." With those words engraved into his young mind, the boy Diablo began to relight the fire. After another five minutes, he finally got it alight.

"Dere ya go. Das how ya do it." Griff said with a smug smile on his face. "Now. How about another drink, eh lad?" He already had his mug out, handle pointed towards Diablo. The boy had no choice but to go and fill it back up.

That's how the next few weeks passed. Diablo worked at cleaning, serving, basic maintenance, breaking up fights, pinning up requests twice a day and any other odd job someone wanted him to do. At the end of every day, he was given his pay. 25 copper for him, and 75 for the orphanarium.

Technically he was in debt to the orphanarium for feeding, keeping a roof over his head and clothing him, but there was no way he could pay that back anytime soon. So they would clear the remaining debt when he turned 16, letting him earn his full pay at the job they had found him, or at another he found himself.

Diablo

Level 2

Strength: 3

Dexterity: 4

Constitution: 1

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 9

Charisma: 1

Titles

[Fire Duelist]

Skills

[Flame of the beginning (Max)] [Candle's Flame (Lv.2)] [Sneaking (Lv.0)] [FireBolt (Lv.0)] [Spear Mastery (Lv.0)]