Chapter 27 - Adventurer’s Guild

You can get one of mine if you want?" Lisa offered Marc one of her dearest possessions, a treasure map.

"Woah, really? Are there any hidden conditions?" Marc was at first surprised and happy before he remembered how he was cheated by a phone seller in his previous life. Those fuckers are too good at writing complicated stuff that is too hard to understand in contracts and will come back and kick you in the balls.

Lisa indeed had a condition. Or more like a choice that's hard to refuse. "I want to come with you when you decide to go on the treasure hunt. Can I?" She asked with an expecting expression.

"Sure, why not?" Once again, Marc signed a contract that will come and bite him back.

"Yaaay~" She said with a happy voice and clapped her hands and couldn't help jumping in happiness.

"That's a date right? We are going on a date. Then next is marriage!" Lisa thought and jumped to conclusions like her sister.

Marc showed a big smile and enjoyed the sight of the mature woman dancing. He didn't find anything wrong with how Lisa's behaving like other people does. It's because Marc's terrible at reading the atmosphere, or rather he totally stopped reading it. His reasoning is, why should he let others influence his behavior when he doesn't even know them? Because of that, he has been called arrogant lots of times in the past. If Marc finds something is funny, he will laugh even if he was the only one who found it hilarious without bothering of what others might think of him.

Then Lisa took Marc's hand and pulled him inside the guild to sign a parchment before taking the required test to join.

Lisa could exempt him from taking it, but other adventurers would surely look down on him. That's a thing Lisa wouldn't tolerate, so she didn't even ask for his opinion.

After he signed without bothering to read the small stuff, as usual, Lisa said "Now you only have to show your worth at the back of the guild where people who challenge each other usually duke it out. I will find a person you c-"

"No need, I will challenge someone myself. Can you show me where I will fight first?" Marc interrupted and pointed with his thumb at the exit of the office where they currently are alone together, going through some rules and whatnot.

She tilted her head to the side, making her hair fall to the side too, and looked at Marc with a curious gaze. She wanted to know what he was thinking so bad but couldn't get herself to ask for some reason unknown to her so she just said. "Yes, then let's go now."

They walked to the back of the guild where Nina just finished repairing the area two days ago after an adventure totally blew the place up after fighting someone.

It looked just like a little garden with trees, grass, and flowers around the place. It was around 300 m2 big, or small depending on the view you look at it.

"You will fight here. You don't have to worry about messing the place up. My little sis can quite easily fix the place up again, so just go all out and don't hold back. So who do you plan to fight?" Lisa showed Marc the place that didn't look like a place where adventurers fight at all. Nina quite often uses this place to release her pent up energy when she's getting frustrated with her big sister by using her magic. To others, it would look like she's gardening, but only her family knows the truth. To the Heartfilia family, Lisa can be a pain in the ass, as she's just so different compared to other family members.

"Wait here, I will be back in no time!" Marc said with a grin before running inside the guild where people eat, drink, and choose quests.

Five minutes later…

Marc burst outside again, running while laughing loudly with three people chasing him while more people were following because they wanted to watch the show.

"Get back here you little shit, who do you think you are calling amateur punks with smelly breaths? We are proud adventurer's!" Said a man who looked like the typical adventurer who had to teach rookies a lesson so they would know their place. Big brawny with brown hair and beard stubble. Behind him, two people were following right behind him while saying something cliche "We will let you know your place."

"Ahahaha… I was just telling the truth! Your breath smelled so bad that you must have let a hooker kiss you just before closing time." Marc's mouth was his greatest talent, it might even be better than Naruto's Talk No Jutsu, though it had had another purpose. To piss people off.

"Fuck, I'm going to show you the might of a Gold-rank adventurer! That will teach you not to belittle us- !? Guild Master?" Just as the leading man was about to use his magic, he spotted Lisa or Nina in the corner of his eye, and abruptly stopped making his two mates run into his back. The people who wanted to see a show saw her too. They straightened their backs and almost lined up like in the military, afraid that the commander would punish them harshly. None of them could differentiate between the twin sisters, but they sure as hell wasn't taking any chance, so they showed their best behavior in case it was their Guild Master in front of them.

"Lisa~ I want to challenge those three," Marc said to her, making the adventures flinch as it was the Guild Master, and looked at him with pity because he just said her first name.

Lisa's mind short-circuited because in her ears it sounded so sweet when Marc called her by her first name.

He had to pinch her in the side to get her out of her dreams, making her shriek, and the adventures rub their eyes to check if they worked properly.

"Eh? Oh, ah, sure. You three, fight him together!!" After getting her bearing back again in no time, she commanded the smelly breathed adventures to fight Marc.

"Damn, I have bad luck today. Nothing good comes out of being involved with the Guild Master. But this way, I can teach this kid what pain is." The smelly breathed leader thought. He had no intention of disobeying the Guild Master.

"Yes, Guild Master!" Said the smelly breathed trio in unison.

…

"Fireball"

"Ice Spear"

"Mud Bullets"

When Marc chose to fight these guys he knew they were pathetic losers, but he overestimated them. All they can do is spam those spells, and they are actually pretty bad at aiming too. The only spell Marc hard to counter a few times, was the Mud Bullets as they came as many projectiles compared to the single Fireball and Ice Spear the others shot at a time.

"Is this the strength of Gold-ranks? Rofta told me that people who don't have magic can typically only reach this rank, but this can't be right. An experienced fighter with a decent shield would be able to take these guys on and maybe win. Well, guess I will have to proceed with the plan before I will be able to have fun. Whatever let's knock these clowns out." Marc thought and questioned Rofta's information's credibility.

"Stay still and don't move!" Said the guy who used Ice Magic. His brain might have frozen too because what he just said was really stupid.

As Marc had decided to end this disappointment, he waited for the next Fireball and ice Spear coming before he just countered and threw them back with even greater force than before.

The Fireball hit the owner right in the stomach sending him flying with burned clothes and Second-degree burns. It was the smelly breath leader who got knocked out first. It would make him deeply ashamed when he wakes up after being hit with his own spell.

The Ice Spear flew right between the owner's rips, out of his back, leaving a hole through it. It wasn't too lethal, though he would die of blood loss if he wouldn't get cured.

Only the Earth- or Mud Magic-user was standing with shaking legs, not knowing what do to.

At the side Lisa was frowning, these 3 adventures weren't anywhere near having the capabilities to be promoted to Gold-rank. Something is fishy, and she will investigate where and who raised their ranks.

Even other adventures who usually accept quests here from the main branch were frowning, because those watching who are just traveling to the capital might look down on them now. And indeed one person was certainly looking down on them.

"So this is a Gold Rank Adventurer, huh? How disappointing! Even a trained housewife will be able to beat them while grilling the chicken for her family..." At first, Marc intended to act disappointed to provoke other adventures into fighting, but now he's truly disappointed.

The Gold-ranked adventures who are spectating felt their pride being trampled upon and wanted nothing more than to rip the tags of the smelly breathed trio off. But first, they felt they had to win their honor back, so multiple people stepped forward.

"Don't you look down on Gold-ranked adventures!! Those three idiots obviously got their rank with underhanded methods. They only have the skill of Iron-ranked, maybe that idiot has Silver. I challenge you to a fight. I will show you the strength of a Gold-rank!" A 20-year-old Gold-ranked adventurer said while pointing at the still shaking mud thrower in the distance before he fainted of fright when everybody looked at him with glares.

"Sure, I accept," This was what Marc intended from the start, so why should he decline?

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This time Marc had a pretty satisfying fight, though he didn't go all out. But this man did have some skill. He used Weakening Magic, which made Marc's physical abilities weaker by a bit. He tried to dispel it with his Paw Magic, but he couldn't do it in a short time. But he did feel some progress and would for sure work on it later.

Marc still won despite getting his physique lowered, as he just stopped the duel axes that the adventurer used with *Counter*.

Marc enjoyed the fight despite winning the fight rather easily again because he learned something new.

"So who's next? I don't care if you come at me together." Marc said to the crowd while motioning with his hand to come forward.

Multiple took the provocation and stepped forward.

"I will fight you next!"

"No, I will be your next opponent!"

"You two, back off. I will fight him."

More Gold-ranked adventurers stepped forward and Marc butted in their argument and pointed at the first man to step out. "You. We will fight first then. Don't worry, I will fight with you all after I win."

The man he pointed at got even angrier as Marc just said it like he was sure of his win.

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Well, Marc won and proceeded to get challenges one after another. Now he reached a winning streak of 10 in a row. The Gold Rank adventures didn't manage to win their honor back, but no higher ranked than Gold stepped forward until now…

Amidst the quiet and dejected atmosphere, a lady with blue eyes and short, short spiky vermilion colored hair, red markings around her eyes, has one sharp, pronounced canine tooth. just walked out of the guild with a Platinum plate hanging on her belt.

"Oh, who allowed you to fight without me? How about somebody fights me next?" She said with wild fighting intent and thirst for a fight in her voice.

When Lisa saw her she couldn't help smiling, as she really liked this girl's personality. She was the one who blew up the place last time.

***

(A/N: I don't have much to say, other than I might have been somewhat unclear about how guilds work before the first 'real' guild as you know it in Fairy Tail. They don't have so much freedom as in canon and can't do whatever they want like Fairy Tail (Guild) basically did. The Adventurer's Guild is a military power under the Kingdom of Fiore. When war breaks out, requests will have to be posted and have to be completed (or at least attempted. To be more clear the guild system will change in the future.)

(A/N: It's really fun to ask, but who do you think I used as a reference for the next challenger?)

(Words: 2119)