The Rankers Guild (2)

A young man with black hair reaching his blue-ish eyes and a muscular body fairly obvious under his long shirt and black jeans sat on a white couch at a huge lobby, the place looked luxurious and mysterious, women with red dresses were working behind a white reception desk, they looked like models instead of employees. the young man was red, holding a black thin book in hand, inspecting it. 'F rankers guide.' was written on it.

Upon opening the book, on the first page an eye symbol was drawn in the middle of the paper with black ink, it gave off a weird vibe.

It had the basic introductions to the rankers guild, these are not special, the information can be easily found online, it's the common knowledge about the guild which took up some pages.

Red scanned through the book, upon finishing it, a grim expression fell upon him, he had a hint of fear in his eyes.

What the book explained to red, even with his low rank, made him worry. the world was more dangerous and messed up than he thought.

The dangers of dungeons, this was not a surprise to red but what was, is the cruelty of your own teammates, he knew about robbing and rumors about killing each other for loot, but not the whole truth. Humans are a valuable material as well, some rankers and underground guilds and factions, would deal with humans and every living being, they can be used as test subjects or slaves, with a lot worse fate. even souls and body parts of all kinds can be sold.

Some sort of training can be provided, a veteran ranker will teach you the skills you purchase from the guilds store, all varieties of skills and equipment are available. a price for the skills and another payment for the instructor if needed.

All monster corpses or materials collected inside a dungeon can be sold to the guild, laws and order of society are unavailable inside dungeons, they try to prevent these actions but there isn't much that can be done, with storage rings and bracelets, the loot carried by the returnees is unknown.

When being unable to fulfill a quest or contract, penalty points will be given to the ranker, when reaching a certain number, the person will be enslaved or sold by the guild, or some sort of compensation must be provided. This was a common occurrence. with the benefits that comes from joining the guild, rankers must remember that it is not free.

The guild will take a 10% of quest earnings or loot sold.

An F ranker is only allowed to enter F rank harvesting type dungeons, with common resources and weak monsters. new rankers usually use them to gain experience in live combat. harvest dungeons are already conquered old dungeons which did not close, the boss is dead and the only danger was from the minions left, they respawn whenever a new team enters. a common occurrence among the low ranked dungeons, but extremely rare for high ranked ones.

All knowledge provided by the guide book is incomplete, all rankers must discover and learn by themselves.

Red was a bit nervous, the book didn't tell him everything and he had to discover the real rankers world by himself. Due to the Steady Mind skill, he was able to stay composed in all situations, which helped him here as well. He calmed down, and sat there for a minute.

"Well, i knew the stories were too good to be true, all the heroes and saviors bullshit was just some sort of advertisement." muttered red with a serious expression.

Even with the small information the public was provided on the rankers world, he already knew that it is not what it seems and a lot of things are happening, he was prepared for the worst.

"I realize that what i know is just the tip of the iceberg." muttered red. He knew that the humans sold and used are not only rankers or from dungeons. He was sure that civilians were somehow used as well; it was just properly covered from the public eye. He got worried about his family, his mother and sister... many disturbing thoughts went through his head.

The book was not something for him to take home, it was just to save some trouble for the employees from explaining things to new rankers, he handed back the book to the woman.

"Are you done sir?" the woman asked with a smile, her pretty face and black long hair were eye catching, but red wasn't paying much attention to her, he was deep in thought.

"Yes, thank you." said red while turning and walking away.

"Wait sir, you forgot your beginner package." said the woman while putting items on the desk.

Red looked at her then at the items, there was a silver ring with small writings that went around it, a small white book with 'Telepathy' written on it and a small card. it had the black eye logo on its white background with something written at the bottom.

"These are the beginner items provided by the guild for assistance. A lesser storage ring, a Telepathy skill book and our app link, type the link in your phone browser and it will start downloading, the app is very useful, auctions and shops, everything bought will be delivered to your door, information about dungeons and rankers is available as well. but not all information provided is free. good luck" the woman had that same smile on her face. she seemed odd to red but he didn't care much about her, he left after grabbing the items and throwing them in his pockets.

Red got home, he unlocked the door and stepped in.

*tmp* *tmp*

Red could hear footsteps heading his way. his mother walked up to him.

"You're finally home, are you ok? did you get hurt??" she asked.

"No, i'm fine." answered red.

"Ok, good, i prepared some food. we waited for you, come eat and explain to us." she said with a serious expression.

They both walk in, red could see his sister sitting on the table with food on it. she waves at him and he waves back. He washes his hands and sits.

"Since when?" suddenly his mother asks. she was referring to his awakening. He understood.

"A while now, i spent some time understanding it and didn't want to worry you." answered red.

"The money, where did you get it, was it really from your ranker friend?" she asked. she knew that red was lying to her before, his lie was kind of obvious but now she has her doubts, since he's an awakened himself, it wasn't that far fetched.

"Yeah, i did some work for him...." red continued "i registered today.. for the guild to take care of the incident at school, and future problems i had to." answered red, he didn't want to lie but he can't tell them everything.

His mother and sister kept asking questions, they finished their food.

"I heard you got first place red, nice bro." his sister continued "My friend told me." she had a smile on her face.

"Yeah, i didn't believe it either. hehe" laughed red.

"So what college are you going to apply to?" asked raya (His mother).

"I ... I'm not going to apply to one, I'm a ranker now, I can make much more money than any job I can get in the future." answered red.

"What?. you won't be working as a ranker, I watched the news red, I saw all the deaths and weird things that happen." yelled his mother.

"The weird things don't just happen to rankers mom, it happens to everybody, we're barely able to afford anything now, and after what i did to stan at school, i'm sure his dad is going to come after us, we can't do anything without the guilds protection." said red with a serious expression.

Stan's father was a known mad man, he had so many rumors about him and after what Red read in the guild he was sure that most of it was true. Many people vanish after an argument or a problem with him, the guild is the only thing that might keep him at bay for a while, until red could do something.

"I got a job, this morning I was hired by a store owner, we spoke for a bit and after he learned that I lost my job he offered me one, it's a clothes store run by him and his daughter. they seem nice, the pay isn't as good as my last job but it should be enough. we'll think of something red, i don't think the rumors are true, we're nobodies he wouldn't waste his time on doing anything like that." said raya with a worried look, she knew that they were in danger, but she was trying to think positively.

"Mom, i didn't just fight with his bodyguard, i broke his arms by accident, i got mad and didn't control my strength, he tried to block my punch with his hands but they broke." explained red.

The room was silent for a bit, they were surprised by how easy he broke his arms but it was mostly because they knew that it was more serious than they thought.

After a bit of talking, Red's mom agreed about him becoming a ranker, with the condition that he puts in some time to study as well. it's not that she didn't trust he could handle things, but she just wanted to have a plan B for him at least.

After helping with the dishes, Red goes to his room and takes a shower. he sits on his bed with the items he received in front of him.

He grabs the silver ring. "Appraisal."

'Lesser Storage Ring : A low grade enchanted ring, with a unique small space within it where anything could be stored. space of three square metres is available. (Price : 50 000$).'

Red was speechless, he got this item for free but it was worth a lot. it would not be replaced for him if lost so he had to be careful while handling it, he read in that book that he could be killed for a ring like this. He didn't think much about it and put the ring on his finger...

'A new space detected'

'Update inventory? Yes / No'

Red was surprised. The inventory had 5 slots when he used it the first time, and with every level up 2 more slots would appear but it stopped at 15 slots, even after leveling up more it didn't add anymore, red thought it was the limit, but he found another way.

"Yes.". suddenly, some weird lines started appearing on the ring, it looked like it was getting older and decomposing, then it fell off his finger and turned into dust.

'Update successful.'

After seeing the message, red opened his inventory, and found out that it no longer had 15 slots, 5 more appeared. The lesser ring was worth 5 slots for him.

Red was happy, he didn't have to hide anything, and people won't attack him for the ring since he doesn't have one anymore, his items are safe.

He reached and grabbed the skill book, it was white with 'telepathy' written on it's cover. he opened the book and thought he'd check it out or memorize it since it wasn't that big and with his high INT it would be easy, it had only 20 pages that had explanations with pictures and descriptions. suddenly..

'Recording ...'

A message popped up with a loading bar under it, red didn't understand what was happening so he waited..

"It didn't move even a single bit.. why?" questioned red "Forget it, i'll just read the book myself.".

He continued reading and turning pages. at the middle of it red glaces at the loading message.

"It moved ... Is it related to me?" questions red "Maybe i have to read the book so it can get the information as well."

Red read through the book, it was a bit complicated, it explained how to control your mana and send messages through it to others. time is needed to master the skill, but then..

'Recording Complete ...'

'Learn Telepathy skill? Yes / No'

Red was surprised, he expected something like this to happen or fasten his learning of the skill since it was recording it but he didn't expect to just gain the skill straight away. "Yes.".

'New skill acquired : Telepathy'