6 Questing

"By the way, you didn't answer my question. You want to join my party or not?"

'Being with Anne sure is a workout, both physically and mentally. Then again, I do owe a lot to her.' I thought about it and quickly reached a conclusion. "Yeah, I'll join. By the way, you said parties are made up of three people and that yours had one spot open. Who's the third?"

"Hmm… he's currently in the wilderness on a long expedition. He should be back in a couple of days, I can introduce you to him then. Before that, I'm just going to assume you haven't applied to be affiliated with the practitioner guild yet. You should sign up before we leave, if not then you can't receive missions."

"Yeah, that's a solid assumption… I'll do that."

We walked back into the main room and met with the lady at the front desk.

"Ah hello again miss, I'd like to apply to become affiliated with the practitioner guild."

"Sure thing, just fill out this form and your application will be processed shortly."

She handed me a document which asked for my basic information like magic affinity, arts experience, and some other details. I found a nearby table and began to fill out the form.

"This is a bit tedious, why do they need all of this information anyways?"

"Mainly for documentation but also to classify your rank. You'll start out at the D rank since your affinity is over 75. The lowest rank is F with the highest being S. Each sub-rank will have a minus meaning that you just entered the rank or you haven't been doing enough quests which might lead to a demotion or a plus sign which indicates a big enough improvement in strength and accomplishment which will allow you to move up to the next grade. Grades will determine the difficulty of the quest you can receive and in turn how much money you make."

"I see…" I finished up the application while Anne went on another one of her spheals. "By the way, what rank are you at?"

"I'm currently at D+. My talent isn't as great yours so I had to start from F-. Go turn your application in and meet me outside at the bulletin board, I'm going to start looking for a quest."

I turned in my application and after a few minutes, the lady told me I'd be classified as D rank and gave me a small badge proving my rank. Afterward, I walked outside of the building and started looking for Anne. I spotted her along with a few others that were crowded in front of a ginormous wooden board. It was a bit later into the morning so practitioners coming and going.

I walked beside Anne and began looking through the quests as well.

[Grade D: Collect 10 Mambasnake corpse (as intact as possible).]

[Grade F: Water arts required, assist with new farm subsection. Will take two days.]

[Grade C: Escort merchant cart to the city of Bramont. Around 4 days.]

[Grade D: Obtain Lightstone pieces near goblin cave. As much as possible.]

All sorts of quests were available from helping out a farmer or blacksmith with a specialized task to hunting a high-grade monster that has been plaguing a certain area for years. However, out of all the grades, the distribution seemed to be centered around rank D. It was only after looking through a good portion of the board before finally seeing one B ranked quest. Anything above that was practically nonexistent.

I looked towards Anne to with yet another question, I wonder if this was how my ancestors felt back before Google had existed. "Hey, why are there basically no quests above the C rank?"

"The guild system is a widespread thing so, in order to standardize it, we use one system that's consistent throughout every location. So basically, our town is kind of a shit hole. It's far away from the continental divide, the monster density isn't high enough to attract adventurers, it's far away from the main water channels, and the list goes on. There's not much going on so most of the quests are for very mundane things, hence the low-grade average."

"Ah, I see… that makes sense. Have you picked out a quest yet?"

"Yep! Here's a D rank collection quest. They want us to collect sky fruits which grow on a specific type of tree that's a bit deeper into the forest. The trees that bear sky fruits are often very tall and the sky fruit, as the name implies, typically grow at the top. It'll be easy since I practice air arts and I have Hawk."

"Oh right. Speaking of which, where is Hawk?"

"He's at my house, we can head there now, gather some supplies, and then start heading towards the forest."

…

As we made our ways through the town and arrived at a humble home. It was one story tall and is primarily made of stone. The entire frame seemed quite aged, but peeking through one of the front windows was a young boy. I saw his expression light up as we got closer to the home, but his eyes were fixed on Anne. As we approached the steps, his face disappeared and the front door swung open.

"Welcome back sis! I've prepared the daily questing supplies for you already!"

Anne ruffled through the boy's hair and gave a smile, one that I haven't seen before. "Did you now? I knew I could always count on you, Rudy. Come on, let's head inside now."

We walked inside Anne's house and I'm met with very basic and minimalist wooden furniture, everything that you'd expect is here but not much else. The house was, however, filled with bookcases, and there were also multiple books lying around the house that are still open. I looked around and it didn't seem like there was anybody else in the home beside us three.

"I'll go get the supplies for you sis, give me a second, I'll double check the arrows!"

Anne and I watched as he scuttles off into a room. Anne's face was a lot gentler now. 'I've seen her fight and act brazenly but… I guess she has a soft side as well huh."

"You got a nice place. Was that your little brother?"

"Yep. His name is Rudeus and he's 10, but this is my family's home, it was originally built by my parents."

"What work do your parents do?"

"Well, my father and mother both use to be adventurers and practitioners of the arts."

"Use to… so…"

"My father went missing during a mission when I was an infant. My mother then moved here to raise me, but she died during a monster invasion when I was 10."

"Oh… I'm sorry. That was insensitive of me."

"No, it's fine. It's not exactly a secret around these parts so you were bound to find out sooner or later. Plus, it was 7 years ago after all."

Silence spread throughout the room. Only occasional shuffles from Rudy could be heard as he paced around his room. I've never been great at comforting others, but I felt obligated now.

"My father was never in the picture and my mother also died in an accident when I was 13. I've heard the same remarks over and over again from others saying they're sorry and I know you might not want to hear this but… you're strong. I've seen it for myself. I stayed with my relatives but it seems like you had to fend for yourself and take care of Rudeus as well."

"Well I mean, my neighbors did help me out as well, it's not like I did everything by myself…"

"I guess, but my point is that I've gone through the pain as well, having the world fall apart with one incident. From that alone, I know you're strong, but you've done so much more as well. I guess I just wanted to say that you're really admirable to me. I don't really have much now but… if you need me for anything please rely on me."

"I don't need your consolidation… but… thanks. I'm sorry about what happened to your parents as well."

"Well I'm in the same boat, the world still moves on and I've moved on as well."

Anne walked near a window and stared outside, "Yeah… so it does."

'I wonder if I was able to express my thoughts accurately... I wonder if she understood…' I saw her empty expression and I wondered if I looked the same way before. I made myself a promise to get stronger so that I could pull my own weight in the party as well. 'Alright, I'll definitely train my ass off tomorrow when I meet master Caladan.'

"Sis! Sis!" The mood of the room brightened as Rudeus entered with a bag and a beaming smile. "I've put in the usual and I've prepared 12 arrows for you!" He said as he handed off the supplies to his sister.

Anne looked through the bags and patted him on the head. "Hehe… thanks, you're as great as always Rudy! I don't know what I'd do without ya."

Rudeus looked pleased after being praised by his sister. Anne opened a nearby storage door and took out a sheathed sword. She adjusted her equipment on her back and tossed the sword to me.

"Here, I don't think we'll need it but it's better to be cautious. You can return it once you get your own."

I caught the sword and unsheathed the blade examining my new weapon. It was a bit old but it was still a fine blade.

"Thanks, I'll repay you back someday, I promise."

"No need, let's get going."

Anne walked out the door and before I stepped outside as well, I felt a tug at my shirt. I looked back and Rudeus was standing behind me.

"Hey, mister… my sis acts tough but she's still a kid. Can you please promise me you'll look after her?"

I didn't know what to think when this 10-year-old boy referred to his older sister as a kid but it's not like I could say no to this cute kid.

"Well mister here isn't exactly the strongest either but I'll definitely try my best…"

"NO! Promise! Promise my sister will be safe!"

I scratched my head but his eyes were unwavering.

"Yeah. I promise. I'll protect your sister with everything I have."

He finally looked pleased.

"Hey! What's taking you so long?" A voice asked from outside.

"Nothing! I'm coming now." I gave Rudeus a reassuring look and walked outside to meet Anne. As we left the house, I saw Rudeus climb onto the window once again, but this time his eyes met mine.

'Pro-mise!' He mouthed. 'He sure is a good kid.' I gave him one last nod and we went on our way.