Part 24

『 Flame Manipulation (TIER 1): In ancient times, Dragons ruled the world through power and oppression. They were masters of combat, flight, and magic. Thanks to your efforts, the skills『 Combat Expertise 』and『 Dragon Fire 』have combined to form『 Flame Manipulation 』, a series of skills that dragons used in their early days. The Dragon Fire that runs deep in your blood has begun to surface itself through your combat, providing complete flame immunity to you and your subordinates, though this is only the beginning of your journey to rediscover what the dragon race has lost. All physical attacks have become engrained with magic, allowing for a bonus of +200% Damage and a -40% MP cost when using『 Fire Bending 』』

"God, I have no idea what this means," I mumbled to myself as I read the newly required skill. Then, too annoyed to deal with it right now, I pushed the status window away and turned back to Rebecca.

"This is your guild card," Rebecca told me as she handed me a small white paper. The card was about the size of my palm and was made out of ordinary paper, but had been laminated so it didn't bend as easily.

The card itself contained four important pieces of information. First, the card's material and color. Because I was only F rank, mine was white and was made out of ordinary paper. I would only get a card made out of something more expensive when I ranked up. For example, E rank cards were made out of plastic, D rank cards were made out of wood, C rank cards were made out of iron, B rank cards were made out of bronze, A rank cards were made out of silver, and S rank cards were made out of gold. SS cards did exist, but there was only one made in existence, so nobody knew what they were made out of, while SSS and EX rank individuals had never existed.

Then, after the card's color and material, was my level. The level, on ordinary cards, was printed in the middle of the card as the main figurehead that caught everybody's attention. However, because I didn't tell the guild my level, mine was left blank.

Next was my name, which was printed on the bottom left corner of the card, and then my resident city, which was on the bottom right corner of the card.

The other side of the card didn't have any words, but the entirety of the card was covered in small faint dragon wing designs that most likely represented my 'class', rather than my race that was supposed to be kept a secret.

However, as soon as I took the card in my hand, a sudden notification appeared in front of me.

﹃

Name 'Arthur' adopted

Name changed to 『 Arthur Aureys 』

﹄

"What happens if I lose this?" I asked as I turned back to Rebecca as I tried to ignore the incredibly significant notification in front of me.

'So I guess it's official now,' I thought to myself.

"That's not actually possible, as there is an enchantment built into the card to prevent loss or theft," Rebecca answered, "Even if the enchantment is removed, your card can only be used by yourself, so nobody even bothers to steal it in the first place."

"Okay. How do I rank up?" I asked as I put the card in my pocket.

"Because we don't know your actual rank or level, your only option is through merit. The guild will keep track of your accomplishments and will rank you up when we decide that you've completed a task too difficult for an F-ranked individual, so it'll happen automatically without any worry on your part," Rebecca explained, "However, ranking up will be considerably harder each time, and may even require a test if we're not sure if you really deserve the rank up in the first place."

"Understood," I nodded, "Thank you, Rebecca. I'll see you again sometime."

Rebecca nodded, then watched as I turned around and left the guildhall. I didn't, however, leave the building. Instead, I went to one of the doors that lead to the other two rooms on the first floor. The one I went to, the left one, lead to a small restaurant where most of the adventurers went to relax a little.

The guild owned the restaurant, but that didn't prevent the restaurant from getting its own name, separate from the guild's influence.

It was called the 'Hitman's Hearth'. Because it was about half the size of the main hall, it took up the remainder of the available room on that side of the building. Two of it's walls contained windows, while the others didn't. The room itself was split into four different areas.

The first was the bar, which was built on one of the windows walls and contained any of the refreshments that were for sale. Five employees ran the bar, though it was connected to the second area that contained even more.

The kitchen, which was the area connected to the bar, was hidden behind a large wall that blocked off the adventurers from view, but it's open doorway allowed us to see a small portion of the kitchen where more than forty employees worked.

The third section, which took up a minor part of the room, were the stairs. The stairs were wide and winded up like a snake, though the stairs only had a small railing on the side, which allowed for a few adventurers to be seen running up and down the stairs from the rest of the room. The stairs led to the lodging on the second floor and the offices on the third, and had a duplicate stairway in the third room of the first floor.

The fourth section, which took up the remainder of the room, was the dining hall. This was built into a divot of the room, like an arena, and contained about twenty large tables. Because of the large number of tables and their sizes, almost two hundred adventurers were capable of taking their seats without much trouble with room.

As Icarus and I walked into the room, I quickly found Jonathan and Evelyn sitting at one of these tables as they enjoyed a quick meal as they waited for me. I grabbed a chair as I walked up to them, then set up up to allow Icarus to sit down on the edge of the table while I took one of the benches opposite of Jonathan.

"You done?" Jonathan asked. I nodded, then showed him my card.

"We got ours as well," Jonathan said, pulling up his own white F-ranked card. Evelyn did the same and showed me her F-ranked card. I sighed as they saw these, slightly guilty for making the others lower their rank to F-rank for me.

"I guess we'll have to start working hard from the very beginning," I sighed as I put my card away.

"Yep!" Jonathan cheered as he took another bite of his meal. Then, with a full mouth, he continued to speak, "The question is, what kind of quests can we take? We're only F rank and we don't have a complete party, either. What are we going to do?"

"Hmm? There are three of us, but that doesn't count as a full party?" I asked. Jonathan shook his head and swallowed his food, then took another bite.

"A full party is considered four people," Jonathan told me, then swallowed again. I watched him put a third spoonful of food into his mouth before he continued his explanation, "And unless we can get a full party, we won't be able to take advanced F rank quests."

"What are the difference between advanced F rank and normal F rank quests?" I asked as I leaned forward and took a fry from Jonathan's plate.

"Normal F ranked quests are stuff like gathering quests or looking for somebody's lost items," Jonathan said as he swung his spoon with his arm as he explained the difference, "There isn't any combat involved, so they aren't advanced. On the other hand, when there is combat involved, they're considered advanced quests. Killing goblins or smoke boars would be advanced."

"I see," I sighed. Now that I had been told about this, I realized that was an issue. Then, as I thought about our options, my gaze turned to Icarus, "Wait, what about Icarus? Can he count as our fourth member?"

"No. Even though he's only a little weaker than Evelyn or I, he'll only be counted as a beast, not an adventurer," Jonathan said, "What I suggest is look for anybody looking for a party invite. I would prefer to get somebody as strong as us, but I doubt that they would be okay with F ranked quests."

"Is it possible to work E ranked quests?" I asked. Jonathan shook his head.

"We can only upgrade our quest rank when we're a part of a raid party," Jonathan said, "And we need ten people for that. Forget about getting ten, though, because that'll be plain impossible."

"Got it," I nodded, "After you two finish eating, lets go look for our fourth party member."

"You're not going to eat?" Jonathan asked. I shook my head, then relaxed my arm against the table.

"Maybe later," I replied as I turned away from Jonathan.

The twins finished eating about five minutes later. Then, after we cleaned our part of the table and returned the plates, we left the Hitman's Hearth and returned to the main hall.

"The War Room is on the other side of the hall," Jonathan said as we began making our way across the hall. We walked to the third room of the first floor, the one that was accessed through the door opposite of the Hearth.

"Is that where we get quests?" I asked.

"That and the shop, too," Jonathan said, "They sell stuff like potions and armor, but we can also sell monster drops there as well. Some items sell for a lot, so most raid parties have a forager as one of their members."

"What do they do?" I asked, "Collect monster drops, I'm guessing?"

"Yeah. The strong ones act as porters too, which are people that carry the entire party's items. It's a job that doesn't require a combat class. People that are stuck with skills unsuitable for normal jobs tend to flock to those positions, but that can lead to unfortunate accidents, such as when a party finds an enemy they can't defeat. Porters and Foragers end up being left behind as bait."

"That sounds illegal," I said. Jonathan nodded.

"It is, technically, but the guild is really lenient on parties that use that tactic," Jonathan explained, "Foragers aren't worth much, anyways."

When we walked into the War Room, I was met with a room about the size of the Hearth, but not nearly as busy. It was similar in style to the main hall, but was carpeted instead of tiled. Around where the bar was in the hearth was a large shop. The shop had nearly thirty employees, as it sold just about everything.

Where the kitchen had been in the hearth was a dismantling area here. Monster corpses and beasts were practically dissected for their materials, then placed in safe boxes to be used as food or alchemy ingredients by somebody else. This room had it's own set of stairs that seemed identical to the one in the hearth that lead to the upper floors.

In the center of the room, where the divot would have been, was several pillars of a similar style to the main hall. Around these pillars were benches that various adventurers sat on to relax. In a few of the adventurers hands were small sheets of paper. Then, after my gaze fell on the wall connected to the door, I was met with a giant bulletin board made out of wood.

"What is that?" I asked as I looked at the army of paper that was bolted to the wooden board.