new contract

In the mayor's mansion, and exactly in the biggest and most furnished office in the whole building adam was sitting on a chair in front of a fat short man, the man wore a colorful eye-catching set of clothes, it looked expensive.... mostly made of linen, the set was made of a violet blouse a white t-shirt and cyanish-green long pants, yellow shoes, and what looked like a red tie, he was the rainbow itself, and he was glowing, like a disco ball, adam felt bad for him, the set was anything but fashion related, hell if fashion had an embodiment, the first thing it will do is to murder the mayor and his designer, and then burn down his closet and commit suicide soon after....

trying to look as indifferent as possible, adam faced the supposedly most authoritative figure of the town, he looked more like a spoiled fat noble from those eastern fantasies...

" mister adam we didn't get to talk properly since a lot of things had happened, so i called you to my office that day to see you personally and to tell you about the monthly eliminating games..since you are officially a seeker adventurer, you have to participate "

adam didn't respond, he wanted to hear more about it but he was extremely tired ... he couldn't bring himself to talk, ronny thought the young man in front of him was unsatisfied so he added " actually you don't need to participate, because the reason behind it is to prove you are Powerful enough to delve into basic dungeons at least, i can make an exception for you so you won't take part"

adam was interested, his half closed eyes shot open " sir mayor, can you tell me what the competition is about ? and if there is a reward !? "

the mayor looked confused... 'why would he suddenly change his mind?' but he still answered patiently

" well sir vandaxe since hunting monsters is what they are going to do for a living .. we will be testing just that, it is a four days free hunting game in the outskirts of the forest, i might be dangerous but some people are just that desperate for money so they will register themselves as adventurers without real capabilities to face monsters, some of them is desperate to the point of delving into their demise in the dungeons just for the compensation their family will get form the guild "

adam sighed in his heart ' of course a dark world would be that harsh huh '

" we are a guild for dungeon delving, which is the humanity last act of survival, so we can't afford to let these people die in dungeons feeding the monsters and breaking their comrade's hearts and minds, even worse ..pull the whole party to their deaths, by dying on them, adventurers has a popular saying (in dungeons, a weak ally is worse than a powerful enemy ) "

" so what about the prize, tell me about the rewards " adam asked like he was not even listening to the man, it is not like he didn't hear him, its just that 'he already knew all of it'

shaking his head the mayor now understood what is making this young man willing to shout and jump around while he was not even interested in talking some moments ago ....

" the reward is a full set of apprentice equipment.. and of course a good amount of money "

looking down to his feet up to his chest, and then down again to his feet adam remembered he didn't have an armour, bounty-hunter is an armoured class ! how could he forget that !?

the mayor finally concluded his ranting about the profession of dungeon delving, then he said

" sir vandaxe you have to know that the estate is willing to change your contract, so take a look at this, this is a contract you have to sign before working for the state, this one is for officials it is more lax ... so take a look "

taking the paper in his hands adam begun reading

article 1:

the adventurer responds to the mayor call to do a mission at least one time every three months

article 2 :

in exchange for the adventurer's service he will be provided with meals and drinks every day and even entertainment facilities unless he broke article number 1

article 3:

for doing the missions the adventurer can keep 70% of the treasures and incomes from the mission, the rest goes to the estate

article 4:

adventurer is provided the needed supplies for the official missions( special needed tools for special tasks) while for the additional ones the adventurer would have to supply himself... but he can keep everything he brings back from missions to himself, he also pays a fee for every additional mission

article 5:

it is forbidden to kill other adventurers or commit any kind of crimes or cause trouble inside the town, whoever do so will be banished from the estate, taxed or even jailed or killed depending on the severity of the crime commited

article 6:

after getting your mission, you have to report back at most one month after getting the mission officially ( 45 days for special missions) after this period the mission will be considered a failure, and the adventurer will be declared missed in act....(after three months of not showing up in town he will be considered dead )

article 7 :

the rewards for any mission completion will differ depending on every member contribution to the success of the mission

article 8 :

unexpected difficulties will be compensated ... the party will get paid for a more difficult task, and canceling the mission does not deem it a failed one i their records, and they get a new mission after recovering and resting

after reading all the articles adam understood that the town was making a huge efforts to fight the tide of monsters and clearing the dungeons, the hamlet could be considered a garrison of sorts, it is the first wall the humans has against the dungeons and the monsters in the area, of course the world is full of dungeons and forts and strongholds .... and the hamlet wasn't more than a small little insignificant settlement when compared to the number of the remaining human cities and towns in the world ...

after signing the new contract adam was asked to give them back his old adventurer card, and they gave him a badge instead, he hung it on his chest and inspected it, it was an iron badge in the shape of a shield, he was told those were new IDs to be given lately to all the adventurers and they gave him one of the very first ones, with that limited amount it is a privilege to get one, the badge comes with a one time distress call .... it might not seem much but it may save his life someday, listening to the passionate secretary explaining the badges colours for different ranks, adam memorized them ... you wouldn't want to bother or belittle some masters or even champion ranks, the system was used in other cities and towns, well at least the developed ones...

level 0 seeker ---- bronze badge

level 1 apprentice----- iron badge (like adam's)

level 2 veteran ------ red copper badge

level 3 master ------ silver badge

level 4 hero ------- green emerald badge

level 5 champion ----- golden badge

level 6 legend ---- blue diamond badge

after leaving for a bit, the mayor got back to adam, and with him was the master old priest .... sitting in another chair he brought from the side of the room the old man said

" after three days you will be participating in the hunting game, but before that sir adam ... we discussed your idea in the last meeting, we think its feasible but you need to prove you can distinguish between the dark agent and the other criminals ten times out of ten "

adam nodded .... and the mayor shouted for one of his men " okay bring them in "

three guards entered the room, on each guard shoulder was a mummy... ?! no those were people ...!! but white fabric was covering their heads and most of their bodies ....

the first batch : three

" the right is a dark agent / the left is not a dark agent / the middle there is no human there "

second batch : four !

the two to the left both are dark cult agents, the two to the right they are not

third batch : three people

all innocent

..

..

after inspecting ten batches adam was able to identify every single dark cult agent there was .... those were the ones that was captured by spies or caught in act ....

caressing his beard the priest who was called 'Sahiir' nodded and smirked

" as expected of an ancient class, your answers were all on the mark sir vandaxe, i am really impressed even light magic the nemesis of darkness can't give these results, humans after all are very resistant to light magic, some interaction or collaboration with darkness will weaken this resistance indeed, but not enough for light magic to have any harmful effects on them.."

" sir adam you will be wearing this set of clothes .... and inspecting volunteers for the next two days, you can then take a day off then comes your competition... good luck there young lad , and don't over do it hahaha"

looking at the clothes adam was amazed, opposite to the mayor's clothes, these were master pieces every one of them! the white rob was simple but something about it looked sacred, the mask was a faint golden colour, not strange... but just plain but artistically so, being plain for a mask needs more creativity then being simple,fancy high class leather gloves, boots, and linen snowy with pants ....

when he wore them and looked at the mirror he felt he was looking at some kind of saint .."

"you will go by ''' the saint''' a great name for a hero isn't it? "

adam was like ''''seriously''''' at least put some thinking into it, this is too obvious and simple, but he didn't care that much he wasn't going to be behind the mask for long, and he won't be interacting with people in that identity...

little did he know the new saint of the hamlet will be from now on, an essential figure for the townsfolk, some will travel to the hamlet from far away just to see him... or ask for treatment advice or help in some helpless hellish situations.....