Chelsey led me along a pathway for a while until we started to approach a peculiar building that stood out from the ones around. There was a sign above the doors “The Guild of Briona.” mentions Chelsey. She turns to me with a light smile “Ready to go in?” and with a nod we made our way inside.`

When we made it inside we could see to the left there were a bunch of chairs and tables with some being filled by presumed adventurers that were already drinking the morning away. On the right side, there was a long countertop with two ladies behind it and beside that there was a board with pages of parchment being held on it.

With Chelsey still leading, she started to walk towards the ladies behind the counter. When we got infront of one of them, they asked with a smile “Good Morning! My name is Ilise and welcome to the Guild of Briona, how may we be of service to you?”.

“Good morning! We are here to register this man as an adventurer!” Chelsey says while patting my arm.

“Ah yes, we can help with that here!” Ilise says as she then starts to walk towards a door on her side. Shortly after she appears from the door beside the counter “Follow me please, I will take you to the examination room.”. With Ilsie leading, she brought us through the door she came from and we entered a hallway with doors on both sides and one at the very end. “Each of these doors lead to their own private discussion rooms where employers can discuss quest details but the room we are using is at the very end, it is where we hold our examinations.” After Ilsie finished talking we stopped at the end of the hallway in front of a door and after undoing a few locks she opened it up.

The room that the door led to was a small room with a crystal ball laying on top of a pedestal in the middle. As we walk towards it Ilise starts to speak again “This crystal ball can read the mana within oneself and can also tell of one's attribute as well.” “When you are ready, just place your hand on top and wait a few moments.”.

I was a little worried about what might happen but I still listen to her directions and place my hand upon the crystal orb. After a short moment with nothing happening Ilise then breaks the silence “That’s odd, even if you can’t use magic you should still have mana flowing inside of you.”. After she saw my face she quickly said “That’s okay! There’s many others that can’t use magic but are still a part of the guild.”. “It just makes things a tad difficult to evaluate you since even if you can’t use magic, the amount of mana your body can possess also builds resistance to magical beasts.”.

Ilise furrows her brows for a moment most likely trying to figure what to do with me. “For now I guess we will need to put you on an F rank to be safe.”.

Before she continued on Chelsey interrupts “Wait if you’re worried because he has no mana, I can assure you he’s at least better than average, I had him as my guard from Last Haven to here!”.

“I don’t want to be rude since that can be a dangerous path but we had a subjugation party clear the areas around those roads about twenty days ago so the guild knows that the road should have been safe. So unless you have any other way of proof, we will have to start there.” Ilise rebuttals.

“That would explain why the road was mainly peaceful but we still ran into a demon wolf that was attuned to lightning on the way here!” Chelsey claims.

With a slightly surprised expression Ilise then said “If that was the case did he defend it off so you guys were able to go away? Even if that is a dangerous monster you wouldn’t have proof of such an occurrence especially since there was a subjugation party that passed through there recently.”.

As she finished, I looked to Chelsey to see a smirk starting to form as she spoke again “That may be true if we had no proof but not only did he fend it off but also killed it and by chance what dropped was a mana essence that he got.”.

Ilise’s eyes widen a bit more when she hears that as her eyes turn towards me. “If you wouldn’t mind, could you show me? Also you can take your hand off the crystal orb now.”.

Not realizing that I still had my hand on top of the crystal orb, I moved it off and reached into a string bag, tied to my pants. While I retrieve it, I admire the light red crystal ball in front of me. After a moment I pull out the orb and hold it up to show it to Ilise.

As I held it up, Ilise’s eyes were wide open as she said “If you guys really did kill such a monster and got that, I can’t help but somewhat believe you.”. Ilise then starts to near me “If you don’t mind, just to make sure it’s not fake, can I inspect it?” as she finishes speaking, her hands were held out hoping I put it in her hands.

Knowing that we were in an enclosed area so I have no fear of running away with it, even if she does I’d retaliate so I place it into her hands. After she received it, she brought it up to her eye and examined it. As she studied it her eyes were widening to the point that I thought they might pop out. “Not only does this have five rings, the mana is quite dense with a beautiful light blue!” She studies it for a few more minutes before handing it back to me “I’m surprised that you killed a monster that could drop that but what also surprises me is if there was a monster like that in the area, the subjugation team would have found it’s whereabouts!”

Ilise then takes a deep breath before talking again “I wouldn’t have expected to meet someone of such caliber this morning, if this is true, a monster of that level would need a party of rank B adventurers to exterminate it and you defeated one by yourself. Even with such a feat we the guild still need to be cautious and so as your examination quest we will give you a rank C quest.”. With a smile forming on her face she said “If you really did defeat such a monster, you wouldn’t mind that would you sir?”.

With not much words to say, I shake my head and with that Ilise then starts to walk towards the door we came from. “Alrighty! If you guys don’t mind following me again, we can get everything set up at the front desk.”

After we made our way back to the front desk with Ilise on the other side, she pulled out two parchments and placed them in front of me while saying “Here are two quests that the guild can use as an examination quest for you. You are free to pick between the two.”.

I looked down at the two parchments with one having a picture of a goblin on it with it explaining

Goblin Subjugation - A group of eight goblins have overtaken an E rank dungeon. Looking for adventurers willing to clear out the dungeon so it can reopen to E rank adventurers. The Guild is willing to pay twenty silver coins and all gained from the goblins. Time Limit - Four Days.

After I finished looking over the one on the left, I turn to the right one and see a picture of a carriage and read the description Hired Guardsman - The Guild is in need of transporting certain goods to the Capital and with the recent rise of bandits in the area it needs guardsman to protect it so it makes it to the capital safely. The Guild is willing to pay Fifteen Silver for a safe trip across.

As I was reading the second one Ilise mentions “With that one being an escort, instead of needing to come back here to finish the examination, you will instead finish it over in the capital.”.

Wondering which one I should take, I was leaning more towards the Goblin Subjugation since I want to meet Servel Grue fast. A short moment later I place my hand upon the left one “I’ll take the Goblin Subjugation.”.

With a slightly surprised look Ilise mentions “I should let you know, both quests you will have to do by yourself unless you are signing up with a party, is this lady here a part of your party?”.

Looking slightly embarrassed Chelsey quickly answers “Oh no, I’m just a merchant, I can’t even use magic either!”.

Ilise nods to what she says, as if she already knew. “I was thinking you would choose the escort quest since that's what you did on your way here.”.

I shake my head towards her “It would be better anyways if I was by myself for the Subjugation.”.

Ilise makes a face as she says “Okay… if that's the case, you will now be taking the Rank C Goblin Subjugation quest and take the parchment since there is a map to the dungeon on the back. You have four days to return with the good news!”. She then smiles while adding “After you finish we can complete the process of you becoming an adventurer! Good luck Sir!”.

I then take the parchment and fold it up, after it was small enough I tuck it into my string bag along with the mana essence. After I was ready, both Chelsey and I turned around ready to leave for now. As we walked towards the exit I mentioned to her “That light red crystal ball was interesting.”

“Huh? It was crystal clear though? It was probably just your cloak you were seeing reflecting it.” Chelsey says puzzled as we make our way back to where we came from.