Chp.25: The adventurer guild

It had been two months since the war between the Jurao Kingdom and the Baudonia City Alliance had come to an end. Of course, the populace couldn't help but be pleased: while most of the army was still stationed in beastmen territory, since it would take a long time to completely pacify it, their families back home were more comfortable knowing that at least they weren't running anymore. the danger of going to fight and die in a bloody battle. Even though none of the soldiers had returned home yet, the bodies of the fallen had already all been returned to their relatives, so the civilian population knew who was still alive and who was not; moreover, now that the war was over it was easier to send letters, and therefore the soldiers could keep in touch with their families. As a result, two months after the end of the war all the necessary funerals had already been celebrated, and the civilian population was now just enjoying the newfound peace while waiting for their family members to go home.

This was true for all the cities of the kingdom: by now, there was no longer any trace of the perennial moodiness and apprehension that had been present on people's faces for the duration of the war. Now there were only serene smiles around; there were some people in mourning, of course, but the majority of the population instead had returned to enjoying life as much as before. Even in Atharka, a small city located near the northeastern border of the kingdom, whose population had been most concerned about the war (since the city was located very close to the Baudonia City Alliance), now people thought of nothing else than working, eating, having fun, discussing the most disparate subjects, smiling... in short, the things that ordinary people normally did.

However, there were some people in Atharka who were happier than others, and they were the adventurers of the local guild. This is because they had obtained a great deal of work during the war. Those who chose to become mercenaries were paid handsomely for their warfare contributions, while those who were hunters were able to capture large numbers of wild beasts that had been drawn to the border by warfare. Living directly next to the border, the adventurers of Atharka were the ones who had benefited most from bounties on dangerous animals.

But their luck didn't end there: even if the war had been over for two months now, and it was still difficult to find wild beasts around, there were still many opportunities to make money. Many of the former beastmen soldiers who had deserted during the war or who had escaped after being taken prisoner had formed gangs that robbed travelers and caravans. With banditry re-emerging, there were many calls for adventurers to protect, capture, or even exterminate these bands.

That situation wouldn't have lasted forever, of course: the more the peacemaking of the Baudonia City Alliance continued, the more these gangs would have diminished until they disappeared. One day, the phenomenon of banditry would return to its pre-war levels. But at least for the moment the adventurers could take advantage of the situation to get a lot of work and therefore a lot of money.

As a result, the adventurers guild of Atharka was consistently full every single day. The adventurers came in every morning, chose a mission, and then set off. Some returned in the evening, others stayed away for days or even weeks, and then returned to collect the proceeds of their work. This abundance of work and money, of course, also had its downsides: one of them was that the profession of adventurer had suddenly become very attractive to many people, who hoped to earn something easily. In reality, many of these people were amateurs and didn't know how to fight very well, so in addition to depriving other adventurers of their work, they often died while on missions. Luckily the guild wasn't run by fools and it had procedures to follow when situations like this happened: while normally guild membership didn't have any big rules, as long as the 'state of emergency' lasted they would become more stringent. rigid. In fact, all new adventurers would have had to declare their strength level and undergo a check for it, and if they had been too low not only would they not have had the possibility to accept certain missions, but they would also have had to enter a party formed by veteran adventurers.

This obviously didn't sit well with veteran adventurers, who found themselves having to look after amateurs during already dangerous missions. Therefore, whenever a new face joined the guild, everyone suddenly became silent. Even as they pretended to continue doing their chores, the adventurers actually kept a close eye on the new arrivals to see if they would be a burden or not. And indeed that day too, as soon as the door opened and six unknown people entered, all the adventurers immediately set their eyes on them.

The people who had just come in, however, were different than ordinary amateurs. Three of them, two men and a woman, wore adventurers' plates attached to their clothes; that meant they were veterans too, and the fact that no one had ever seen them meant they were from another town. During wartime it wasn't uncommon for adventurers to travel along the border from city to city; though now, with the war over, that happened less often, it wasn't so strange. However, the three people behind them were much more unique.

One of them was a young woman with black hair. Her complexion was very pale and her features very soft. She wasn't very tall, but she was still above the normal height for women. Her eyes were green like emeralds and her lips were so red they looked like rubies. Many parts of her body were exposed, not leaving much room for the imagination: her sinuous and voluptuous figure was clearly visible to everyone. As far as clothes were concerned, she barely wore a band that covered her breasts and short pants that covered her pelvis, and the only other garment was a cloak that fell from her shoulders to her ankles. But even if she hadn't any other dress, she had something else: the woman was in fact wearing strange protections that seemed to be made of bones. They covered part of her arms, chest, legs and pelvis. It didn't take long before the adventurers realized that they were great basilisk's bones.

This surprised them quite a bit: creating an armor with great basilisk bones wasn't impossible, but since such bones needed a lot of power to cut, it was very difficult to do. Even if a group of adventurers were able to take down a great basilisk, they could hardly make armor out of it, and they would end up selling the boneplates for the best price. Generally only the richest and most powerful people such as the nobles could afford to have armor made with that material. Looking at the woman, the adventurers realized that those protections weren't perfect: in fact, they had several small openings, specially made to allow the arms and legs to move without obstacles. This meant that they served more than anything to block the most powerful shots, like strong spells, and not for example the shot of an arrow.

The second woman also had the same shields, and they too appeared to be composed of great basilisk's bones. She too had black hair and pale skin, but her features were more pronounced, her chin was longer, and her eyes were blue and smaller. She wore the same clothing as the other woman, including the cloak. She was taller than the other, if only by a few centimeters; most likely, the two women were sisters, since they looked so much alike. And they seemed to compete to show who was the most beautiful among them.

But despite the presence of these two beautiful women, it was the third person who attracted the most attention. Compared to the two women he was a giant: he was very tall and with shoulders as broad as a wardrobe. He too had black hair, but his complexion was more colorful than the others; her neck, the only part of her body exposed other than her head, was very broad and showed obvious muscles, a sign of how handsome she must be. The rest of the body was hidden under solid armor made exclusively of great basilisk bones. Unlike the protections of the two women, it was a real armor; it must have been very heavy, yet the man showed no fatigue. The only other garment was a cloak that fell from his shoulders, identical to that of the others, but longer and wider.

From a first glance, it was clear to all adventurers that these new arrivals weren't to be underestimated. Being able to move such heavy armor without effort in fact indicated that the man possessed a certain level of strength, and also the two women mustn't have been weak since their protections were not light either. Furthermore, judging by their dress, it was clear that they possessed a well-defined fighting style, refined after years of experience: the man, having full armor, mainly used frontal attacks and therefore needed a lot of protection, while the two women had to mainly use agility and speed to hit their opponents, for this reason they had protections placed so as not to hinder their movements.

The group reached the receptionist, and there one of the three who already had the adventurer plate stepped forward: "Hello. I'm Efren Horzales, and these are my companions Sarah and Carlos. We come from the south. We belong to the Thakiana guild"

The receptionist nodded. "I welcome you to our city and our guild, then. May I know who you are instead...?" she asked looking at the three behind them.

The man stepped forward: "Very pleased. My name is Rhaegal Neytirison, and I'm Efren's cousin. They are my sister Corgorin" and he pointed to the green-eyed woman, "and my sister Serengal" and he pointed to the one with the blue eyes. "We came here today because we would like to join the guild"

"Oh, being adventurers is in the family then!" the receptionist laughed looking at Efren. After all, it wasn't unusual for those who had adventurer relatives to want to become one themselves. "Normally I'd give you a tag right away, but as you well know these days..."

"...there is a procedure to follow" the man anticipated her. "Don't worry, my cousin informed me of everything. Please go ahead"

"Uh... sure" the receptionist said a bit surprised. It was rare to meet such helpful people: normally all the new arrivals complained about the new procedures. Probably having an adventurer cousin must have prepared those three people for what awaited them. The receptionist opened a drawer and took out a small white ingot. "This is a detector. Based on the color it will assume, I will establish your level of strength. You just have to touch it and it will perceive the mana inside your body"

"All clear. Thank you" Rhaegal said, and he took off one of the gloves, also made of great basilisk's bones, and placed it on the desk causing a slight shaking from its weight. That armor must have really weighed a lot. However, the man paid no attention and placed his finger on the white ingot. A strange silvery aura emerged from the ingot and seemed to wrap itself around Rhaegal, then faded and the ingot turned bright yellow.

"Wow… a level gold, and at its peak. You are really strong, sir" the receptionist exclaimed upon seeing this.

"It's my turn!" Corgorin exclaimed moving her brother with a lot of violence. Though fully covered by his armor, Rhaegal staggered slightly when his sister pushed him away, a sign that she too must be strong. As soon as she touched the ingot it turned bright yellow again, though slightly less so than before. "You're also a level gold… I'd say at the middle stage" the receptionist murmured.

"Well, I guess it's just me left" Serengal said as she touched the ingot too. Again it turned yellow, the same shade as her sister.

The receptionist was appalled. One level gold at peak power, and two level gold at middle stage? It was rare to see such combinations. There was generally no more than one gold level in an adventuring party, all others being either level silver or level iron. That family must have trained a lot to achieve such results. "Okay, here are your adventurer plates" she said, handing them three small metal discs tied with a string, which they put around their necks. Each of those records had the owner's name written on them.

"I have a question" Efren said suddenly. "Me, my friends, and my cousins ​​have been away from cities for a while, so we wanted to know… do bounties on dangerous beasts still stand?"

"Huh? Certainly, but I advise against looking for some. There aren't many around anymore..." the receptionist replied.

"We don't want to look for them, in fact. We want to collect them!" Carlos exclaimed with a smile. "Guys, empty your dimensional bags!"

The six adventurers took their dimensional bags and emptied them in front of the receptionist. To everyone's surprise, an infinity of bodies belonging to the most varied beasts emerged from them. Pretty soon, that whole corner of the guild was full. The receptionist was speechless. "You... you hunted all these animals!?" she exclaimed. "Lions... tigers... bears..."

"We also have four basilisks and two great basilisks, but we can't get them out here or we'll break something" Serengal said in a satisfied voice.

The receptionist blanched. "Well... let me calculate your rewards" she murmured in a choked voice.

The other adventurers were amazed to see that scene. These new arrivals were certainly not naive! They sure knew how to do their job! They were people to be admired, without a doubt! By the time the receptionist had finished calculating the rewards, she had turned pale as a sheet and was perspiring profusely. "Here... your total is 9,326 gold coins" she said. "I'm afraid I don't have enough money with me at the moment… I can give you five hundred gold coins right now, but the rest can you wait until I discuss this with the guildmaster?"

"No problem. But we'll only give you our prey worth five hundred gold coins. We'll keep the rest until you pay us" Rhaegal said. It was a more than understandable request, so the receptionist nodded.

The six adventurers returned their kills to the dimensional bags and left only those on the floor that equaled the pay they had just received. After that they went to the notice board where the various missions were displayed. This made the receptionist pale even further: 'They want to get back to work already!?' she thought shocked.

"So, cousin? Which one do you recommend for our first mission?" Rhaegal asked looking at Efren.

With a smile, the adventurer quickly read the missions and then tore off a sheet: "This one. I know you like difficult missions" Efren said, handing it to Rhaegal. He read it quickly, and then he smiled satisfied, a sign that he liked it. He also showed the paper to the others, and they too seemed to agree; after everyone nodded, they made their way to the door and exited the guild.

The receptionist and the other adventurers didn't say a word for several minutes after that. Finally someone walked over to the bulletin board and exclaimed: "Am I wrong, or did they take one of the missions marked as the hardest ones?"