Kingdom Of The Weak

"Yip!" Vigil barked.

"Squeak!" Teeny shrieked back. "Squeak, squeak!"

"Vigil! Play nice!" Remian warned him.

"Yip, yip." Vigil nodded, tail wagging.

Remian eyed that cub which was a mix of wolf and cat, then at the creature with Joshu that was a mix of cat and mouse, and shook his head. Hopefully nothing bad would accidentally happen.

Actually, the bigger danger was if Carrie got hungry…

"Registration is done!" Mindy said. "Well, mostly, except I"m not sure we should cla.s.sify a nine-year explorer as a "Novice"."

Tim coughed. "What, then? He"s not a warrior like Max, or a mage like Remian. Definitely not "wolfcat" or "bear" like Carrie and Buff."

"Ranger. Like the Ceres Forest Rangers." Max supplied helpfully. "A recon-type bowman with a little pet for company? It fits."

Mindy wrote it down. "Okay, so if you"ve read the charter and agree to the terms and conditions, just sign here…"

"What charter?" Joshu asked.

"That one." Mindy pointed to another wall in the hall.

Joshu glanced at it. Betterment of life on the Frontier, mutual protection among adventurers, professional behavior toward missions, keeping guild secrets, honesty in reports and in regards to points, no stealing from the guild or guild members, respect for Wilds who had joined the Guild, cleaning up after one"s self on Guild premises, not making too much noise late at night or in the early mornings…

From there, the charter turned into a list of domestic rules more suited to a household than to a Guild.

"Uh… we might want to fix the charter as we go along." Max winced, seeing the bemused look on Joshu"s face.

"We"ll split it." Remian suggested. "Everything after "respect for Wilds who joined the Guild" gets put into a separate list called "household rules"."

"Sounds good to me." Joshu signed.

"Congratulations and welcome aboard!" Tim announced, accompanied by a round of cheers, a few high-pitched barks from Vigil, and a deeper wolfcat snort from Carrie.

There were introductions and general chatter to follow. Mandy had Tim bring out a welcome dinner for their first new Adventurer. Until that point, the Adventurers Guild were mainly Remian and his friends. This was the first time a bone fide adventurer/frontier explorer had officially joined their ranks.

Halfway through dinner, Remian made it a point to ask Joshu a very important question. "Joshu, do you have any idea how many others like you are out there?"

"Actual explorers? Five, maybe ten. The folks living outside of town are mainly hunters and farmers." Joshu grunted. "a.s.suming they haven"t been eaten by Wilds already."

He looked a bit disgruntled. Remian frowned. Joshu had seemed perfectly happy to chat with everyone over dinner before. Why did his mood suddenly drop when Remian spoke to him? "Is something the matter?"

"No, no… I"ve just… lost a lot of friends out there." Joshu looked away.

Carrie barked a laugh. [He smells jealous.]

[What?] Remian glanced at her. [Why?]

Carrie shrugged.

Maybe it was because Remian was the highest ranking when Joshu was actually the most senior in terms of years of experience. "Don"t worry about the rankings. As long as you work hard, you, too, could rank First one day."

"Hmm." Joshu grunted without saying anything much.

It would depend on his capabilities. For contributions and most missions, every increase of Tier represented a ten-fold increase in points. For example, meat contributions; the current rates were, 10kg of Tier 1 meat for 1 point, 1kg of Tier 2 meat for 1 point, and 1kg of Tier 3 meat for 10 points. On top of that, higher Tier Wilds had a lot more edible meat (non-edible meat wasn"t counted). Most Tier 1 Blood Rabbits barely had 9kg of edible meat after they were cleaned out. Compared to that, a Tier 2 Blood Rabbit Chief could easily reach 90kg. That Tier 3 Brush Bristle Boar that Max, Carrie and Remian had teamed up to hunt yesterday actually brought in near 900kg. Divided between the three of them, Remian and Max had both gained 3000 points for 300 kg. Carrie would have had the same if she hadn"t kept one third of it for herself and Vigil.

In other words, the points system favored the capable. Whoever could do higher Tier missions or hunted higher Tier Wilds would be able to earn a lot more points. Of course, the dangers likewise were far greater, so one had to be careful not to overreach. Even Vigil could hunt Tier 1 Blood Rabbits all on his own. But if he had to face a Tier 2 Chief Blood Rabbit, all he could do was run for his life. Among the human Adventurers here, only Max could take down that Tier 2 rabbit head-on all by himself. Even Remian wouldn"t succeed unless he took it by surprise. The same went for Joshu, most likely. Bows and magic did favor ambushes and ranged attacks over hand-to-hand combat.

But back to the important topic… Remian had more questions for Joshu. "Can you ask them to join us? All the explorers, and the hunters too."

Joshu paused. "I was thinking the same thing. Is that a mission?"

"Of course."

"What Tier?" Joshu asked directly.

"Well… where are they, exactly?" Remian asked.

"I have a map. It"s based on an airship survey, and I"ve been jotting down locations, inhabitants, and resources on it for nine years. Would that be a worthwhile contribution?"

Remian felt like his eyes were gleaming. "Definitely! Something like that has to be worth thousands of points! We could base a lot of future missions on that information!"

The discussion around dinner turned to the points value of his map. Joshu took it out and two hours later, he received 5000 points and became the Second ranked Adventurer on the spot.

Remian set the missions. "Mindy, note these down; there are nineteen Hunter homes on this map, in which twenty-five Hunters live. All of them need to be contacted, and the survival and status of the hunters need to be confirmed. First Contact with every home north of the Three Forks River and east of the Amber Gorge is worth 300 points on a mission, plus 100 points for every living inhabitant you invite to the Guild for the first time. Successfully recruiting them to join us is worth 500 points per inhabitant. For those west of the Amber Gorge and south of the Three Forks River, the mission for First Contact with them is worth 3000 points; the points for First Invite per inhabitant and Successfully Recruiting them is quadrupled. This particular home here, the one belonging to the Crazy Fisher… First Contact for this one"s 30,000 points, plus 1600 points for First Invite and 8000 points for a successful Recruitment."

It was a fair offer. The Crazy Fisher was on a little peninsula right in the middle of Dragon Lake. Even Carrie would have to sneak her way through. The average Pale Dragon in that lake was Tier 4. The Crazy Fisher wasn"t called "crazy" for nothing.

"Our first Tier 4 mission!" Mindy exclaimed.

Missions were likewise divided into Tiers based on expected danger and risk, usually related to the Tier of Wilds they were probably going to encounter. Tier 0 missions popular among the kids were usually delivery, gathering or fetching tasks in safer places within or around town, like the area around the Guild, the town"s central area and the Iron Legion camp. Tier 1 missions included hunting Blood Rabbits for meat, or deliveries/fetching where Tier 1 Wilds were expected or slightly dangerous areas like the north side of town (dangerous because Rose was there, but safer because the Ravens were there too) and the areas around the Iron Legion camp or a little farther out from the Guild.

While most Tier 0 missions could earn an average of 3 points, Tier 1 missions easily averaged 30 points straight off.

Tier 2 missions, averaging 300 points, were those at the east or west side of town, or on the north side outside town, or anywhere in the area outside town and farther out from the Iron Legion camp or the Guild, or likely to encounter Tier 2 Wilds. So far, only Max, Remian and Carrie had done one of those.

Now Joshu"s map had officially placed Tier 3 missions on the list. The Amber Gorge to the west and the Three Forks river to the south marked clear boundaries. Anything beyond them was a Tier 3 mission, and anyone going on them should be prepared to encounter Tier 3 Wilds all over the place, and even find the rare Tier 4. The only Tier 3 mission ever done in the Guild was the one in which they"d won the cave and the Guild site from a certain bear who used a Fire Ball Wand. The 3000 points had been divided evenly between the partic.i.p.ating members.

"So… we get points for Recruitment?" Tim asked brightly. "Do I get the points for Recruiting Joshu?"

"I guess…?" Remian paused. "Joshu, how did you find us in the first place?"

"It was that girl in the tavern. The one with the braids."

"That would be Jane." Mindy supplied.

"Aww. 500 points…" Tim mourned.

"25 points to Jane having First Invited to the Guild an explorer in a safe zone. 125 points to Tim for successfully Recruiting him." Mandy suggested.

"Just 125 points?" Joshu"s face fell.

"I think Recruiting him should be worth 500 points, like the hunters." Mindy pointed out.

"I think in terms of ability, he already goes beyond the Amber Gorge and the Three Forks River. That"s 400 for the Invite and 2000 for the Recruitment." Remian put in. "A person"s value to the Guild shouldn"t be decided by how far away he was. It should be according to his abilities."

"Maybe recruitment should have a flat rate reward?" Tim wondered.

"Maybe there should be no reward." Mindy countered.

"Or maybe the Recruiters get a percentage of whatever the Adventurers earn." Mandy suggested.

"I like that idea. I really do. But it"s going to be a lot of trouble once we have more people." Remian rubbed his forehead. "Let"s just go by Wilds equivalents. Joshu should be a match for a Tier 2."

"That sounds about right." Joshu nodded.

Remian didn"t tell him the other reason for estimating Tiers for Adventurers that way. It was so that in the event of a Beast Wave, he"d know exactly how much combat power the Guild really had to contribute to the defense of Frontier Town.

Thinking in terms of combat strength Mandy, Mindy, George, Tim, Jane and Kavitha would all be considered Tier 1. Max and Remian themselves could easily take down Tier 1 Wilds, and they could handle Tier 2"s by themselves (Remian might need to ambush one, or use traps but he could do it alone), while they would need help against Tier 3"s. Joshu was like that too.

Back when they fought Buff for the cave, the main reason they won was because the bear didn"t attack them directly. Buff kept trying to hit them with Fire b.a.l.l.s and aiming those with the wand shooting out sideways from his mouth was a really difficult thing to do. Had the bear attacked with his teeth and claws, they would have stood no chance without Carrie"s help. In other words, without Carrie, Remian wouldn"t have any confidence against a Tier 4 Wild.

But the Guild was beginning to acc.u.mulate funds by fulfilling Burning Steel requests and selling them skins. Most of the bones ended up going to the church and converted to Bone Dust for Magic Ink. A share of that ink came back to the Guild, which Remian "bought" with points used to Inscribe Scrolls. For the sake of his ranking (which was based on total points earned), Remian preferred to contribute the bones and buy the ink from the Guild rather than send the bones to Kairos and receive the ink directly.

With more funds, Remian intended the Guild to buy weapons and armor. These could be sold to the Guild members for points and thus increase their combat power. Max could offer martial training and Remian could offer magic training for points too. Given time, the total combat strength of the Adventurers Guild would grow. It would be only a matter of time before they would be a significant force in the defense of Frontier Town.