Chapter 9: The Crucifix Plane

"DAAAAMN!, finally done with it haha" said Ace as he collapsed on the ground in a deep forest exhausted. "For an orc he was quite strong and thick-skinned, well I managed somehow. Am I right Ryu?" continued Ace. "Yeah you managed, but without me it would have been impossible to kill it." Answered Ryu with an arrogant and self-praising tone.

"It was just a whim but after travelling for days I reached Ilmir, a merchant city located in the West." Said Ace reminiscing about the past. As he had reached the city, he went to register at an inn and he then also directly ordered a meal. It had been days as he was camping outside in the wilderness and nourished himself with the food packed by Ellie, his mother.

Due to these circumstances he decided to not last long outside and hasten himself to reach the city. After he finished dining he left his belongings in his room and went to explore the town. He was taken in awe as he saw the tall buildings of the city, the busy sounds of the market and the fresh joyous atmosphere of the people walking around in town.

It was completely different to his old small village. After that, he went to the Adventurer's Guild to register as an adventurer as he was looking for opportunities to grow stronger. It was the best place to go. He had heard from Chris, his father, that one is allowed to register as an adventurer when they are 12 years old and above.

"Hello, how may I help you?" asked the guild receptionist. "I would like to register as an adventurer please." Answered Ace. After hearing him out, the receptionist gave him a form to fill out. It stated the following: Name, Age, Gender, Attributes and Mana-user type. "Hmm, name is Ace Blakelord, age is 13, gender… obviously male, attribute is Dark and type is Spellblade. Guess that should do it right?" thought Ace as he filled out the form.

He submitted it and after that, the receptionist went to the backdoor of the counter and then put away the form. When she came back, she came had an orb in her hands. "Well, if you would please put your hands on this orb?" said the receptionist. After holding out his hands the orb glowed with a bright glow. "I see Intermediate-level? Quite impressive indeed. Now please drop some blood on the orb." and Ace then executed himself.

She went at the back again and after few minutes, she came back with a card in hand. "This is your guild card and it can also be used as identification in other towns." She said while handing over the card. She proceeded to explaining that as all new adventurers he would start at F-rank and that he can take quest of the same rank or one higher rank to his own.

As she continued, she added that after completing a quest, he would be rewarded. And as he completes them, he would also be given guild points. And as those points reach a certain amount, he can be promoted to a higher rank. She also added that there are 7 ranks in total: F-rank, E-rank, D-rank, C-rank, B-rank, A-rank and S-rank; F being the lowest and S the highest.

Ace questioned the receptionist about what other details are involved in adventurer work and after that, he went back to the inn. Arriving at the inn he asks for a meal as it was night. While eating, he overhears two adventurers enjoying a drink and discussing about a certain incident where a party of 6 adventurers went to a forest for a quest but only two of them came back heavily injured due to an encounter with a weird monster.

The forest was located north of the city on the Herald planes. But it gained a nickname due to it becoming the graveyard of countless adventurers sent on investigation after the report of the two injured adventurers. After his dinner, he went back to his room with a light grin on his face.

"You wanna check it out, hmm?" asked Ryu. "Well yeah, some monster which ended the life of countless adventurers of course I'm intrigued." Answered Ace. "Before taking my first quest, why don't we hunt down this infamous monster Ryu?" asked Ace, "Sure. I'm game. Let's go." Answered Ryu.

Following his curiosity, the next morning, fully geared, Ace sets out on this hunt in direction to "The Death Forest within Crucifix Plane, the graveyard of adventurers." Unfortunately Ace didn't yet know the ordeal he would encounter.