The Guild

Faust's footsteps paused for a moment before continuing on their journey to the guild. He naturally assumed that the being that had taken an interest was the beggar, but why would the status notification be so mysterious? Was he some sort of secret NPC? Was there someone else watching him? He looked around but everything seemed the same as before. 'I need to stop overthinking it. Whatever it was, it's probably a good thing.'

Faust walked for a few more minutes before finally coming upon a large, two-story building with an emblem of two crossed swords etched out front. Upon seeing the emblem which represented the Adventurers Guild, he quickly walked towards the large doors. He couldn't help but imagine what it would be like when he stepped inside. Envisioning seasoned warriors taking quests, maybe a bar for the adventurers to relax and socialise at, or people getting into a dangerous scuffle over something unimportant. He had built up an image of the guild before he had even taken his first steps into it.

That image was ruthlessly crushed the moment he opened the doors.

The Adventurers Guild was not like he expected at all. It was extremely clean. If the outside world had the roughness of a middle-eastern bazaar then the Adventurers Guild felt almost futuristic in comparison. Marble floors gleamed in the soft white light, so spotless that he couldn't even find a trace of dust. A receptionist desk also made of marble was located on the eastern side of the building. A flock of cushioned chairs dominated the western side of the room, taking up most of the space.

Faust looked around and was surprised by how empty the place looked. While he was only in the front area of the building, he had thought it would be full of Adventurers having a rowdy time but there were only a few people in here. They all sat quietly in their chair while they waited for their name to be called. One of the receptionists must have noticed his confusion because he suddenly heard a voice from nearby.

"First time?"

"Yes, it is." Faust replied, his tone betraying his nervousness. The receptionist smiled before continuing.

"Well if it's your first time, I'm guessing you're unregistered?"

"Y-yes, I've come here to register as an Adventurer."

Noticing that Faust seemed to keep looking around at the spotless environment, the receptionist kindly explained why it was so different from outside.

"The leader of the guild branch here is an… unusual… man. He absolutely loathes being dirty in any way, so the guild branch reflects his personality well." She gave a small smile before continuing, "If you ever meet him, please make sure you clean yourself up first. Thoroughly."

It was at this point that Faust finally began to look at the woman who was so kindly explaining things to him. She had short brown hair, and green eyes. Her outfit was simple, a black and green uniform.

'The branch leader?' Thought Faust, 'I wonder what made him into such a germaphobe.' His thoughts were interrupted by the receptionist again.

"Seeing as you're here to register as an Adventurer, please follow me." She led him back to the receptionist desk and started pulling out some forms from a drawer behind it. There seemed to be a few other receptionists working, but they paid no attention to Faust and seemed focussed on their work.

"Ah, got it!" The receptionist blurted out, before pulling a folder out of the drawer. Placing it on the desk in front of her, she pulled out a thin piece of parchment and placed it in front of Faust. She continued to speak.

"Please place your hand in the centre of the parchment, like the lines indicate. Please don't move it." Faust followed her instructions, placing his palm there immediately. Nothing seemed to happen for a moment, but Faust felt a small electric shock travel from his palm up his arm a second later. It wasn't enough to cause him to jerk his arm back, but it certainly felt weird.

"Okay, you can remove your hand now!" The receptionist spoke. Faust looked down at the parchment after he moved his hand away and was shocked! It had his status window on it! The receptionist turned it around and started reading it aloud.

"Hmm, level 1? No class? No talents? No skills? You really are a complete newbie!" Her words caused the other receptionists and even some of the adventurers to look over and Faust couldn't help but feel embarrassed. "Sorry!" The receptionist apologised. "I didn't mean to say it that loud, you're just the second newbie today though, so I was a bit surprised. Normally we barely see one every week." Faust was surprised as well, but for a different reason.'The second newbie here today? Does that mean there was a player here before me? But I don't see him anywhere…' The receptionist spoke to him, interrupting his thoughts for the third time today.

"Now, since you're a newbie, I'll give you a brief rundown of the Adventurers Guild as well as your status window. First of all, congratulations on awakening to a status! You are one of the lucky humans to be able to see and use the status window, so please use it well! Humanity doesn't have as many awakeners as the other races, so we're a bit on the back foot. One more awakened is one more hope for humanity!" The receptionist's cheeks blushed as she said this, before continuing in a much quieter voice, "Sorry… I have to say this every time. It's still a bit uncomfortable."

Faust couldn't help but think to himself that she looked quite cute when she was embarrassed. 'Wait. Cute? I thought this NPC was cute?' Faust realised something he had been subconsciously neglecting. 'These people… they're NPCs. They're not real. Not human. But… they are unbelievably lifelike. Those promotions really weren't exaggerating.' The receptionist continued once her cheeks returned to their normal colour.

"Secondly! I'll now tell you how your status works! Although I see you've already allocated your points, do you know already?" she asked.

Faust thought for a moment before shaking his head. He only knew from basic research and speculation, it was better to hear it directly from here.

"Well," she said "Your name, level, HP and mana are already fairly self-explanatory so I'll skip over those. If you get curious for precise descriptions you can look it up later. The first interesting point is the 'Bloodline' attribute. See how it says your bloodline is Human, at 100%? Some adventurers are born with powerful bloodlines, or they mix their bloodline with a beast to gain its attributes. A beastman of the Lizard race could have a Lizardmen(50%) and Human(50%) bloodline attribute. Does that make sense?" Faust nodded.

"Next," her finger traced downwards on the paper, "is your alignment. This will change in accordance with your actions. It is the truest representation of your personality. Since you just awakened, it will stay at true neutral for a while. But every action you make can influence it, so be careful. Your alignment can be very important to some people. For example, the God of Light, Intar, will never accept you as a priest if your alignment is not in the 'Good' section. Then we have your class. Once you finish your registration here, you should receive a notification and be able to change to the 'Adventurer' class. The Adventurer class has a few skills that are integral to your survival and levelling. Getting your first class also unlocks the ability for you to use Mana. Practically everyone who comes here starts off with this class, unless you were already highly skilled at something before you awakened. Then, there's your stats. Stats are a representation of your body's physical and mental ability. I'm sure you can figure out what each one means on your own. Stats can be increased each time you gain status points, which happens with every level up. Stats can also be increased naturally. For example, if you do a lot of heavy lifting your strength will increase." The receptionist paused for a moment to look at Faust.

"Also, stats can change when your class goes through an evolution, so watch out for that."

Faust nodded in response. The information about bloodlines was brand new to him.

'There are gods in this game… how interesting.'

"Finally, there's your skills. There are a practically infinite number of skills to learn, but you should be mindful of the ones you choose. Each skill takes time and dedication to level up so be wary of gorging yourself on them. I'll finish your registration now and you can check your status window again."

The receptionist took the piece of parchment with Faust's status on it and placed it onto some sort of platform. She closed the lid of the platform and placed her hand atop it. Her hand glowed and Faust received a notification from the system.

[Attention! NPC 'Mary' is currently trying to register you as an 'Adventurer'! Would you like to accept this registration? Your class will change and you may gain access to new skills.]

Faust didn't hesitate. He clicked accept. He quickly felt that tingling sensation as he did when he first distributed his stat points. Once it passed he quickly called out in his mind. 'Status.'

Name: Faust

Level: 1

XP: 0/10

Realm: Ravendun

HP: 75 / Mana: 150

Bloodline: Human (100%)

Alignment: True Neutral

Class: Adventurer

Strength: 5 / Agility: 8 / Constitution: 5 / Intelligence: 10 / Faith: 0 / Luck: 0

[Unspent status points: 0]

[Skills: Examine (Level 1), Strike (Level 1) ]

He was surprised. His health had increased despite his Constitution remaining the same. Was it due to the class he had gained? He reached out and pressed on the icon labeled as 'Constitution' as an experiment and a small window popped up.

[Constitution is the measure of your endurance, stamina and resistances. Due to your class, the current modifier is set at 15 points of HP for every 1 point of constitution. You have no current resistances.]

'So it works like this!' He could tap on specific stats to bring up their relevant information, so he wondered if it worked for skills as well. Tapping on the Examine skill, it quickly brought up a window.

[Examine]

Currently level 1, the skill allows you to see information of monsters, NPC's and objects. It must be upgraded further to see more information. This skill cannot be used on other players.

Cooldown: None

'See information?' Faust thought about the applications of the skill and quickly asked Mary a question.

"Miss Mary, do you mind if I try out the new skill I got on you?"

"Of course not, most newbies don't even ask for permission! Though I doubt you'll be able to see much." She replied with a sweet smile.

[Examine skill activated! As the target's level is higher than yours, limited information will be shown.]

Name: Mary

Level: 25

HP: 800 / Mana: ???

[No further information is available.]

Faust was stunned. This sweet looking receptionist was level 25! She could probably knock him on his ass if he angered her. Faust laughed nervously, his eyes moving to the side to see Mary wearing that same sweet smile. Although it looked more like she was trying to hold in a laugh now.

"Haha...I didn't realise you were at such a high level! Thank you very much for teaching me!" Faust's had suddenly stiffened, so he looked rather awkward.

Mary's hand covered her mouth and she stifled a giggle.

"Oh, don't go admiring me, I'm sure you'll catch up in no time. Level 25 isn't actually that high at all." Although she spoke like this, her tone and posture indicated that she was quite proud of being level 25. But Faust didn't seem to notice her tone, and his eyes were looking at the parchment.

"Oh, really? It's not that high? How long will it take me to reach it then? A few days?" Unbeknownst to Faust, he had just said something completely idiotic.

"A few days!?" Mary's tone changed and it seemed like she was a bit angry. "Maybe for you lot, risking your life out there every day, it won't take long...but normal awakeners can only level up through safe quests, like their work. It takes me about a week to level up just once through this quest, but I'm not interested in dying to some sort of beast! No thank you!"

She stood with her hands on her hips and her head leaning forward. Normally, Faust wouldn't be intimidated by a sweet looking girl shorter than him, but the fact that she was 25 levels above him certainly helped her case. He immediately backtracked.

"No! That's not what I meant! I was just trying to… I just wanted to tell you… I just - " Faust started stuttering.

'I thought I'd be less awkward since this is a game but… it's just too damn realistic! I'm still clumsy when I talk to girls…'

"It's okay, Mr Faust. I know you didn't mean it like that. It's just… some of the adventurers I meet in here are really full of themselves, you know? They think they're so great at everything just because they're at a higher level than me! Sometimes I just wanna walk up and hit them right in their smug face!" She waved her fist around threateningly as she continued. "But I can't. For most of them, I would probably just end up hurting myself if I hit them. I'm sorry for being a little proud earlier, but it's only when you newbies come in that I can actually feel good about my level, if only for a little bit." Her shoulders sagged and her eyes looked down when she finished talking, and Faust couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

Faust tried to say something to console her, but nothing seemed to come out. So he stood there, without comforting the girl. Like an idiot.