16 The first task

Seeing the badge, Pete understood immediately. Taking out a paper from a drawer he readied his pen before asking.

'Full name?'

'Finn'

'Just Finn?' Seeing the helpless look on Finn's face answered that question so he moved on to other questions.

A few minutes later they were done and Pete returned the trainee badge.

'There you go, your basic information has been registered with us and recorded on your badge. Wearing it will grant you access to most of the ground floor here at the branch headquarters. You can feel free to use the training facilities through that door, or buy some of the basic supplies from the guild armory.'

The elf first pointed to a door at the far side of the room, then gestured towards the request wall as he continued:

'For starters check out the requests board, you can pick any E-rank task that you think you can complete. Whenever you accept one or finish one, make sure to come register in order for us to track your contribution and resolve your rewards. When you have completed enough tasks and if we deem you qualified, your rank will be upgraded to that of an official member.'

Excited, Finn carefully pinned his badge on his chest as he imagined rising though the ranks and earning all the money he'd need.

'Oh, one last thing, come put your hand on this stone'

Pete pulled out a medium magic stone that was set in the center of a device shaped like a six pointed star. Each point had a numerical scale from 1 to 20 starting from the magic stone and leading out to the tips. Seeing Finn's look of confusion he quickly explained.

'This is a kind of talent sensing device, it assigns a fairly accurate numerical value to each of the 6 attributes commonly agreed upon by researchers decades ago. This is just a basic one, more advanced ones can even test magical affinity or bloodlines.'

Noticing the look of hesitation on the young man in front of him he continued.

'Nothing to be worried about, it's quite easy to use, and don't think about the cost. This thing only uses sensing magic which doesn't consume a lot of power, and besides, if it runs out we can just head over to a friend of mine at the magicians guild to get it refilled for pretty cheap.'

Finally convinced, Finn placed his right hand on the stone. It was cold to the touch but slowly warmed up as it started working. Finn felt an odd tingle in his muscles at first, then it moved inwards to his stomach, lungs, and heart. After that, his head throbbed a few times weirdly, making him a little dizzy before the process finally finished.

Taking his hand off, Finn watched as each pointed started lighting up. The light came from the magical stone moving up each scale slowly and eventually stopped at different points.

Pete who was watching the process, smiled as he remembered his first time using the device and how weird it felt back then. When the lights stopped he quickly wrote down some numbers and what attribute they represented and his own comments about the results. When he finished he handed it over for Finn to look at and copied down the results under Finn's information.

Finn looked at the paper and saw what was written.

Strength: 7

Dexterity: 16

Constitution: 14

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 15

Charisma: 10

Puzzled, Finn read Pete's explanation of the attributes.

'Strength is self explanatory. Dexterity is related to reflexes, balance and agility. Constitution is how resilient you body is and how well it copes with poisons or wounds, as well has how much stamina you have. Intelligence is connected to your ability to learn and indicates magical talent. Wisdom is less literal, and has more to do with willpower, senses and intuition. Finally, charisma affects how you influence others and is connected to an affinity to the Devine.'

Still unsure what his results meant for him, Finn looked at Pete's personal comments.

'High dexterity low strength, fighting at a distance may be best in case of combat. High wisdom, scouting may be a suitable role due to high awareness and acute senses. Constitution abnormally high for such a skinny body. Average intelligence and charisma, unlikely to have talent for magic.'

Reading through it carefully, Finn felt a mixture of wonder at the device's function and a little disappointment at the analysis of his potential to learn magic. He was thankful that he had found a crossbow, it seemed like he would have to stick to that in case of a fight. He knew he wasn't strong, but was a little surprised at scoring so low.

Aware of what must be going through Finn's head, Pete tried to cheer him up.

'Your scores aren't bad, you'd probably make a good ranger if you work hard. If you need lessons on archery or herbology you can ask that elf over there in the corner. Artemisia can consistently hit the bullseye even when she's half drunk. And don't be sad about your lack of magical talent either, none of us here use magic either.' Smiling, he whipped out a knife and threw it at the wall accurately skewering a spider that was starting its web. 'We prefer a more reliable and tangible method of dealing with problems.'

Feeling a bit better, Finn finally stepped away from the desk and made his way over to the request wall. It was a lot of information to process, so Finn Finn decided not to worry too much about his attributes for now, and turn his focus back to making some money.

It was quite interesting to read through all the tasks. There must have been over 30 posted on the ground floor. Apparently anything rated C-rank or higher was on a similar wall upstairs.

Finn decided to focus on what he was allowed to choose from, the E-rank tasks. There were several simple tasks like helping a farmer catch their escaped chickens or helping to trim the hedges at one of the public parks. None of that seemed interesting or paid very much. Finally he found one that interested him, and pulling it off the wall he brought it back to Pete to officially accept it.

Looking at what Finn had chosen, Pete smiled and nodded in approval.

'Rat extermination eh? Not bad for your first task. This is one the best paying E-rank task there is and also the most dangerous. Looks like you'll fit in well with the rest of us here, haha! You've got the right attitude, none of us members are afraid facing a little danger in order fill our pockets. Good luck!'