Chapter ~ 3: Maria's Orphanage & Adventurers Guild
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' Do I have to?'
[ Yes ]
' Do I Really have to?'
[ Yes, you do Master ]
" Ugh!" Putting my head down In defeat. It seems my lazy life has gone before It even started. How sad...
I'm the type of person who would eat a cup of Ramen noodles every day, instead of cooking, which I'm actually good at. It's just so troublesome to go and pay for all that food and cook It. I rather eat my noodles, which only takes about 2-to-3 minutes. Hell, the only thing I actually pay at the store except for noodles is Big Red and the black bag of Hot Cheetos.
... However It seems today, I have to go outside and Register at the Guild to become an Adventure...
...Not the same per-say, but it's all means one thing: I have to go outside... And talk to people. Oh gods, the horrors. The nightmares.
' Well, at least I'm handsome, so it should be easier than my past life. I always found people rather talk to handsome and beautiful people, rather than your everyday Joe.' Thinking this, I got up off the chair and started walking to the double door.
Putting my mask down where it's hanging from my neck, I sighed," Well, let's get to it."
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Orario, the Center of the world, the city of legends where dreams came true, and heroes had ballads written in their honor. On a particular night, a bard who wrote these ballads wandered into the city. This was not news in itself; bards, minstrels, performers, and troubadours were always coming in and out of Orario. Some were part of musical Familias, while others were independent, not looking to be tied down. Our intrepid troubadour was the latter kind of performer; this was not for lack of trying, though.
However, I'm still regretting going outside. In the streets, I look around a little and see that the architecture resembles old Rome, some sections of Greece and Egypt mashed together into a medieval era and left to go nuts from there, interesting, but not important, the architecture is interesting but not vital. What, however, throws me for a loop was an Elf walking by, a beautiful woman that looked to be in her mid-twenties. Though in most fiction, Elves are said to live for hundreds if not thousands of years.
...She's looking at me.
Smiling, I greeted," Good day." Having old fashion Grandparents is something you don't want to have. Trust me, you don't want to read about William Shakespeare for years and learn how to talk like him.
" G-Good d-day!" Greeting back, the Elf tripped over her words, who is now a red sputtering mess.
Smiling once more, I walked off through the different races of this world.
Walking through the street, I casually observed the other people near me. If I were to sum them up in one word, it would be 'ordinary'. Well, ordinary for this world. Just simple people walking about doing their business, living their lives, unaware of the possible extra-dimensional intruder amongst their midst.
Looking at the shops and stands, I chuckled,' And here I thought, I'll never see something like this in my life. It seems the Gods fancy me a little too much.'
While walking for a little while, I suddenly stopped seeing a building with little kids running around, possessing many types of races.
*Bing*
Feeling something hit my shoe, I saw a patched-up homemade brown ball hit my foot.
Looking up, I can a small human child around 6-8 years old with long light brown hair and light green eyes, looking at me and the ball.
Understanding what she wants, I picked up the ball and walked towards her with a friendly smile.
" It seems someone lost a ball? Would you happen to know who that might be?" I asked, crouching In front of her, still smiling.
" That would be me, Mister." She answered with a small giggle.
" It is now? Are you sure?"
" I'm sure, Mister." She answered once more, smiling brightly.
" I see. Then here you, are." Giving her the ball in her small arms, I patted her head," Now, don't lose it now? Else I'll go all around Orario, looking for It."
" Okay, Mister!" She smiled, hugging the ball.
Chuckling, I put my pinky finger to her," Promise?"
Giggling, she put her small pinky finger around mine and giggled," Promise!"
Smiling, I patted her head once more and got to my feet," That's good. Now If you don't mind, I have somewhere to be."
" Please come back, Mister!" She yelled, with a happy expression.
" Will do." Saying this, I started to walking away.
~~
" Amelia, who was that?" Walking out of the building, a beautiful young girl asked. She has bluish-gray hair that she keeps tied with a small knot in a ponytail style. Her eyes are the same color as her hair and she has a light peachy-colored smooth skin. She wears a white blouse with a leaf-colored knee-length long skirt. She also wears a slightly long half apron around her waist. She wears a pair of brown boots over black stockings.
" Big sis Syr!" Running to the young girl, the young child Amelia smiled brightly.
Smiling pleasantly, Syr asked, crouching down In front of Amelia," Amelia, Did you know that person?"
" Nope~ But I do now! He said he's coming back!" Amelia answered honestly, with a happy childish smile.
" Is he now?"
" Yup~ Big sis Syr, did you see his pretty hair? It's soo pretty! I bet he takes care of it every day!" She said, In an excited manner.
" I did not. You'll have to show me when he gets back." Sry said, still smiling pleasantly.
" Okay! I will!" Saying this, she ran away, playing with some other kids.
Looking at where the unknown man left, Sry's eyes gleamed,' Hmm~ Interesting.'
~~
" Next in line, I can help you over here!"
The teller called over the person in front of me, and they walked towards the counter, happy to finally be getting some service. It made sense that they'd be happy. They had entered the line at the same time I had, and while I hadn't been keeping very good track of time, I would guess that we've been waiting for at least a half-hour.
At the very least, I didn't get any weird looks, remembering my appearance and clothes. However, from what I could gather, every time I walked by an Elf, they would become bright red In the face, possessing a hunger look In their eyes.
I even had to shake some of them off, from following me. It was as if, I was some unique piece of meat they had to eat.
I mean, I don't mind, have a good time with an Elf or two, but not right now... Those thoughts were shaken out of my mind as the rather cute girl behind the counter waved me forward.
It was My turn.
" I can help you now sir!" The girl cheerfully called from the reception to the front left of the line, and I walked up to her, putting my hands on top of the counter. " How may the Adventurers Guild help you today?"
Smiling In a charming manner, I said," My name is: Aric. it's a pleasure to meet you. I would like to become officially registered as an Adventurer of Orario, and acquire a license allowing me to go adventuring in the Dungeon." Plainly and simple. It was almost like I was ordering some food at a restaurant. Polite, and straight to the point.
" Yes, sir!" The black-haired girl replied, her purple eyes fixing on my brilliant green ones from across the counter. Her angled face, and pointy ears showed she was an elf, and quite a pretty one at that.
' Oh shit. Another Elf.' I thought, seeing her eyes flicker.
" We currently have several advisers available. One of them will bring you the paperwork, and talk you through the signing up process, before becoming your full-time adviser from the Adventurers Guild." She said continuing, and I hummed a noise of understanding.
That made sense. It was also safe to assume every adviser had multiple adventurers assigned to them at one time. If that hadn't been the case, then they would need far more staff who would just do nothing half the time, as their adventurers go out on expeditions.
" To your left, there is a conference room for conferring with your adviser. Please, take a seat in booth number six." The Elf girl said nicely and I smiled. It wasn't usual for people to be quite so charming when dealing with you back on Earth.
" Thank you."
" No problem, have a nice day Sir~!"
Walking to the left of the counter, I started walking to the point she pointed me to, as another person took my place.
Looking upwards, I checked out the room. There were booths seats made out of green cloth spread about, with about two meters in between the back of one bench, and another. Plenty of space for talking, and enough that you could speak in privacy if you moved away from the other people in the massive space. All these benches, which were soft and comfortable.
Quickly spotting booth six, I sat down leaning back into the fabric, with a slight grin, that only made an Elf walking by me, become red In the face.
Getting tired of this, I asked Inside my mind,' System.'
[ Yes, Master? ]
' Would you care to tell me, why every time I smile or walk by an Elf, they become some blushing mess?' Not that I don't like it, mind you. I'm just curious, that's all.
[ It's because Master has a high affinity for magic. And because of your appearance, that makes you look like a God In mortal flesh, especially to the Elf & High Elf race. Why to them? I don't know. I guess they just took more of a liking to you than the others.] The female electronically-synthesized voice in my head answered emotionless.
' A God In mortal flesh, you say? Ha, have amusing.' I chuckled lowly, at this comment. I guess if you look at it, I am a God.
The sound of footsteps against the wooden floor of the mostly empty room drew my gaze, and I had a brief moment to register who it was before frantically looking for a name. After a moment of searching, I had found it and began compiling all the data I could remember... It filtered in slowly but was all there by the time she arrived at the booth.
Eina Tulle. A Half-Elf, being a receptionist of the Guild and Bell Cranel's advisor. She was an elf if I recalled correctly, and zeroing in on her long pointy ears, that seemed almost a certainty. Though, as my eyes continued scanning her face, I noticed a pair of glasses sitting high on her well-defined nose. Sitting on the bridge of her nose, the small pair of what appeared to be corrective lenses were over a pair of bright green eyes, and that nearly threw that theory out the window.
Watching as her nice, if partially obscured figure approached, I filed away what the uniform for an adviser looked like. The black vest and slacks were complemented with a white dress shirt, and the entire outfit seemed to fit her perfectly. Upon slightly closer inspection, I noticed just how well it sat on her frame. A well-made outfit.
" Sorry! I was finishing up with another adventurer." She said, arriving slightly out of breath before sliding into the seat across from me. The only thing between us was a small wooden table. " The life of an adviser isn't easy."
" No problem, I was only waiting for a few minutes, and I'm not exactly in a rush," I said with a smile. Then, continued," My name's Aric, it's a pleasure to meet you..."
" Eina Tulle, at your service." The half-elf said with a nod, before glancing me over. I noticed her eyes twinkle lightly before she continued talking. " You know, it's quite refreshing to have someone introduce themselves so cordially."
" I take it most adventurers aren't quite so polite?" I asked, smiling a bit as she blushed slightly and nodded.
" That's sadly the case most of the time. They oftentimes think they're better than us regular guild workers, just because they can slay monsters." Eina said, and I could understand where she was coming from.
" Yeah, I could see that," I said, remembering the people I passed walking here.
Shaking her head, thinking of something unusual, Eina pulled out some papers," I like you Aric… Or at least, I like you enough to show you all this wonderful paperwork."
" Well, that's a lot." In the past ten seconds of me simply breathing she had dropped an entire stack of paperwork in front of me. Looking at it, she shrugged before leaning back in the seat and looking at me.
" Sorry, but it's necessary if you want to be an adventurer."
" Ah, all those liability forms in the event I don't make it back alive I assume?" I asked humorously, and she didn't even try to deny that's what they were. Looking at them though, I noticed no fine print.
Odds were good that they simply didn't have someone with small enough handwriting to do it, seeing as the printing press had yet to be created.
" Yup! You will first fill out these forms." Saying this professionally, she pulled out some papers.
Grinning, I skimmed over the forms. No fine print, everything was plain as day. There was an ink bottle left in front of my right hand, with a small ink pen beside it.
Reading over the forms quickly, I got the general gist of them.
If I somehow died, nobody in either my familia or family could sue the Adventurers Guild. Anything I do is of my own choice, and I am never forced into anything. There's even a section that specifically notes that I can deny anything a Guild worker tells me to do. Perhaps that was an oversight, but already I was thinking of a way to abuse that.
Reading further, I found the part where it clarified that wasn't quite the case. There were some more minor things, like legal details about what would happen if I were to find a new, unmapped part of the Dungeon.
Reaching forwards, I grasped the pen and brought it to the page.
Signing [Aric Aesir-Skadi] in pleasant cursive everywhere required, I eventually finished leaving behind a neat stack of papers. Once the ink had dried of course. Looking around, I saw Eina approaching a moment later, possessing a calm yet serious expression.
Sitting down across from me, her hands went forwards, taking the papers and straightening them before she flicked through them, checking for inaccuracies, or bits I missed.
Possessing a smile on my lips, I looked at Eina as she flicked through the papers.
" Alright! Looks like these are all in order, Aric."
" Great. Now, I assume there's more?" I asked calmly.
" Yup. Just a bit more, and then we'll give you a brief rundown of adventuring, and how it works." She said, before glancing at the papers and then to me.
Humming something, she continued," Now, these forms will have to be rewritten every once and a while for the Adventurers Guild." Eina said, continuing explaining for me, as she explained the forms. " They contain a list of your current stats, skills, and other physical statistics so we know who you are and what you can do."
" Here you are." She said, before pushing the form towards me to fill out, what looked to be something that came out of RPG. This was a character sheet from a role-playing game. I'm not sure which one, but it was awfully similar to something I've seen before.
There was a spot for skills, abilities, stats, and what gear I had on me.
Smirking, I grabbed the pen and started to fill out the pen.
{~Name: Aric Aesir-Skadi.
Sex: Male.
Race: Human.
Height: 6'2
Weight: 169 Ibs.
Eyes: Bright Green.
Hair: Pure White.
Gear: Luxurious Light blue-green cloak and clothes | Two Long Swords at each side of hip |
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Magic:(None).
Skills:(None).
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Familia:(None).
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...]
Looking at the Guild Adventurer sheet, I nodded,' This should do.'
Taking the sheet, Eina's eyes flickered, "Aric, I think this is the start of a beautiful partnership between us." The cute Half-Elf girl sitting across from me said, before clasping her hands and leaning forward to the table.
" Does that mean you're officially my new adviser?" I asked, serenity.
" Yup!" Hearing me, she nodded with a cute smile, retaining a small bright red blush.
Shaking off her blush, she inquired," Would you need the break down the few types of adventurers and what being adventurer means? If not, we're be almost done."
" We can get to the end. I already know the basic principles from a close friend." Thanks, Fandom-chan.
Nodding In understanding, she asked," About gear?" Looking at my cloak and clothes, Eina's eyes sparkled In concern.
Chuckling, I shook my head," No thanks. This is all I'll ever need."
Nodding with a thoughtful expression, Eina continued," What type of Adventurer would you like to be?"
" Explorer." With this said In an extravagant flourish, my signature was done.
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