h.e.l.lo everyone, it"s Reaper.
What does the Adventurers" Guild sounds to you ?
Kind elder female receptionist, ever moving crowd, the adventurers gathering around the notice board, discussing.
I"ve heard that in some novels there is a bar in the adventurers" guilds, the bartendress is the most powerful adventurer ever, If you get her admireness, you receive an
expensive armguard as reward. But, for what I am experiencing...
"You, get into jail the first day you arrive ? For pocket-picking or touching hips of some girls who seem to be easy targets ?"
Even the young woman receptionist is facing her customer : me, lights up her cigarette without hesitation.
Holding her chin with one hand, she skims trough a chart I"ve just filled with my personal information, talking with slangs like a veteran.
She doesn"t look like a receptionnist, but more like a over-aged office-lady who have missed best age for marriage since have been working too hard...
"No ! It"s a mistake ! I didn"t commit any crime, just being teleported into the jail by coincidence !"
"OK, OK, anyway I only see "some minor crime" in it, it"s rather common among adventurers." That guard, what the h.e.l.l has he done ?
"So it"s not a crime..."
" It"s "OK" as I said ! You are really annoying." She not only intterrupted my protest, but also punched the table hardly.
" If no more questions, could you confirm your profile ? Reaper, 17 years-old, Outsider, ah, you didn"t fill the Cla.s.s. "
"Huh ? The Cla.s.s ? " Though went through with a little hesitation, I left that block blank. Was it the Cla.s.s that the Loli G.o.ddess ordered me to set ?
" You don"t know your own cla.s.s? "
"... Sorry."
" For what ? Open the status pannel and see it yourself."
What ? Status pannel ? Is there such thing in this world ?
She seems to have understood my surprise face, an impatient expression appears.
"You don"t even know how to open it ? Raise your left hand, squeeze, and leash at sight height. Don"t forget to say "Status" in your mind." While she explained and demonstrated, I did the same.
A transparent UI jumped out like in the MMORPGs, this world ... is really convinient.
Hmm, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Consistence are unexpectly average... I move my sight to the Skill pannel.
What?
[ Adventure Knowledge Lv. 1 ]
[ Basic Tenacity Lv. 1 ]
[ Basic Meelee Weapon Mastering ]
[ Spell Casting Lv. 1 ]
[ Basic Object Identifying ]
[Basic Ranged Weapon Mastering]
[Fast stepping]
So many of them ? The list can be scrolled down obviously, I roughly have a dozen of skills.
"Does normal adventurer has many pa.s.sive skills in the beginning ?..." I couldn"t help to ask the receptionnist with doubt.
"Generally three at most."
"I have twelve of them..."
"WHAT?!" Leaving me in the doubt, she raises her squeezed fist and leashes it pointing at me.
"Your stats... are really average. They are high in value, but none of them is outstanding... "
So basically my stats are good ....
"Your pa.s.sive skills.... how come you have that much ?"
Seeing her face covered with doubt, I realize that perhaps this is my hack or buff ?
"Huh? Do people really choose like this ?!" She suddenly bursts out loud.
"How ? Are you surprised by my talent ?"
I ask her with a bit complacency, but she opposes me with some strong words.
"ARE YOU NUTS ?! Take a look at your Cla.s.s pannel!"
I dragged the screen all to the top, when I saw the cla.s.s pannel, I feared that I had a bad sight, so I rubbed my eyes to see it more clearly.
Warrior Lv.1 / Mage Lv.1 / Rogue Lv.1 / Slinger Lv.1 / Adventurer Lv.1
"Why so many of them !"
"Don"t you know that multi-cla.s.s has drawbacks ? You suffers from Exp punishment for each one more cla.s.s you hold, you"re dealing with five times of Exp punishment now !"
" Five times ! I don"t remember that I have choosen like this !" When ? The Loli G.o.ddess had never given the chance to choose my cla.s.s !
"You"ve wasted me so much time and leered on me, so I"m going to punish you ..." Is it that moment ?! So she messed up with me ?! The punishment wasn"t being teleported into the jail with head stucked ?!
"It must be wrong."
"Don"t worry too much."
While I was recalling the scene with the Loli G.o.ddess, the receptionist calmed down, lighted up another cigarette and says :
"You can change your cla.s.s in exchange of some Exp and money. The difficult part is your 5-time Exp punishment. You"ll have a hard time gather the neccessary money and Exp. With your level stays always low, you have to take continously low paid quests. Even if you accomplish all that, you"ll just get to the origin point of rookie aventurers..."
"Please do not continue.. I am having the idea of dying for another time..."
"Ah, speak of dying."
Seems she remembers something serious, she switches the face, puts down her cigarette.
"I bet you don"t know, but in this world, you can be revived in a limit of turns."
"Turns ?"
"To be precisely, it"s twelve turns. Do you know about the Dungeon of Infinity?"
"the Dungeon of Infinity?"
"Not even this... wait."
She pulls out a map from the counter, unfolded, it"s a map of continent. She points to the area in the middle of the map.
"The middle of the continent, there is the Dungeon of Infinity. Though it"s called "Infinity", the explored levels counts only to twelve."
"It"s that big to cover all the area of the middle of the continent ?"
"Well, as it"s a dungeon, it lays underground. On the surface there are people, monsters living. The Dungeon of Infinity has many entrance in different countries, you can find teleport station in big cities. The first five level of the dungeon is stable, the ecology is quiet well studied, there, many adventurers works in collecting resources, also there are many people works in treatment of dungeon productions. "
"The first five levels... so that is to say the lower levels are unstable ?"
"Yes, they change every three months. There are always three orfour entrances to the next level ,but with the structure and ecology changes, quests for the lower levels are very complicated."
"But what does it do with the dying turns ?"
"Hear me out. From the 5th leve, there is a Boss-grade guardian monster of the Divne Gem. These monsters are incredibly strong."
"So.... you get an extra dying turns if you defeat them ?"
"Exactly. In the 800 years after the Dungeon is discovered, 7 monsters of this kind are slained. Every time they are defeated, everyone gets an extra turn."
"But those who commands the power of a nation have no intention of defeating them ?"
"Because it doesn"t repay that much."
She picks up the half burned cigarette.
"First of all, those monsters have spells of artifacts to deal with multiple targets, the casualty cannot be controled. Besides, the dying turns apply only to accidents or death caused by monsters. For those who worry always about being a.s.sa.s.sination, it is no worth to spend men and resources "
"That"s a reason too realistic..."
"The men of status are realistic. Except the dying turns, every time the boss falls, there will be a part of continent that appears from nowhere. "
"A part of continent?.. sounds like a grand scale."
"No exageration, in average it covers land of a kindom. Some was integrated directly into exsisting continent, some appeared as a giant island. So the bonus, besides the dying turns that you may not use up for the life time, is another contribution of the adventurers to this world, that"s why the Adventurers" Guild is found."
Putting the cigarette in mouth, the receptionist who has turned easy-going seems having something else popped up in mind.
"You are teleported here this morning, right ? You have not even a dime ?"
"... Yes, except my clothes."
"Wait here." She leaves, I have finally the chance to look at the details of the guild.
Though I have arrived the guild with kind pa.s.ser"s help, but think about myself, I have no money, no equipement, the only one I know is held in the jail. I fell into the confuse of my own future.
From the streets I had seen, it was like a little town for newbies to me. I thought there were no many people in the Adventurers" Guild, but in fact it was not.
The first glance made me think that I took the wrong door, but the sign was the one of the Adventurers" Guild, not a bar. But pricisely, I saw few dozens of adventurers drinking and talking.
I couldn"t help of thinking "Why are you people wandering around here instead of going for adventure".
"Ok, I"m back"
With a pouch and few papers, the receptionist comes out of the guild"s office.
"This is the starter project of Tirllings Bussiness Group." She lays down the papers in a row, puts the pouch on th side.
"The newbie adventurers can benefit from the project, sign for a refund date according to the different amount, it"s like a loan to new adventurers. But the interest is low, considering their incomes, the refund deadline is long."
"Sounds like a student fund..."
"Yes, many new adventurers said the same thing."
The receptionist shows me a warm smile that completely differs from her over-aged offce-lady look.
"Your cla.s.s composition will not be approved, so I registered you as Level 1 Adventurer. "
She pushes one of the paper to me, points at the blank to sign.
"Sign here, and take this card."
She hands me a thin but hard metal plate, there writes an ID of number and my name, also, a portrait of mine made of some I-do-not-know technology which seems surprisingly stereoscopic.
"The picture...."
"I took it while watching your status pannel, it"s not a very complex spell."
"A spell can do such thing..."
"Only a piece of image, if you want it appear on a object you"ll need equipement."
I sign while listenning to her, hand her over the contract.
"You"ve turn that much in your att.i.tude, because of my cla.s.s composition ?"
"Carefully thinking, you"ll spend years to get to the start point of others... Ah, the contract is for two gold coin. For your convinience, it"s changed into 200 silver coins. "
"Thanks a lot." I take the money carefully.
"This stays just between you and me : actually I have given you 250 coins."
It"s it what she is allowed to do ? She"s being generous but not with her own money.
But I can"t say it in front of the one who tries to help me with index in front of her lips.
"From your cla.s.s composition, you may consider some light equipement. "
"To make spell casting easier ?"
"To make escaping easier."
"So I"m destined to escape ... "
"For someone knows everything but nothing excels, that"s common. Don"t forget to find a team. There might be some complication in personal relationships, but it"s safier. "
She begins to sort out the files, shows me the gesture that I can leave.
I took the card and the pouch, turned around and left the counter.
"Be careful, don"t die before solving your problem of cla.s.ses."
She advices in my back. Being nice is good, but for that reason ...
The wicked Loli G.o.ddess ! Don"t let me see you again !
Next set to continue
Come on hardguy ! Go on adventure !