The Adventurer's Guild

Hey, Shun here!

There were some instances when a protagonist would encounter trouble right in front of the city gate.

I'm not saying that I think of myself as a protagonist but I thought that surely there would be some trouble that would happen somehow.

Oh, wait, I think I'm talking about the wrong genre here. Those things would only happen in Wuxia and Xianxia novels.

Some young master of some-rather-affluent-sect-or-clan would see the protagonist's girl and get smitten by her, leading to a series of events that would then end into the death of a whole sect or clans. Intense, right?

This is the reason why Chinese novels describe beauties in a Town Destroying, Country Destroying, etc etc level, right? It's not them that does the destroying but… you get the point!

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(Shun's POV)

"Halt! What business do you have in Tsia City?"

The cautious-looking gatekeeper ordered me to halt once I got close enough to the gate. Not wanting to cause any unnecessary problems, I complied and stopped.

Being wrapped up into a sudden bad situation is all fine and dandy — that's fate, I just have to deal with it. However, creating troubles for myself is not something I would do.

"Aaah, sorry. I'm from the countryside, so I don't really know how these kinds of things are supposed to work in a city. Do I need something to enter inside?"

"…Answer the question. What business do you have in Tsia City?"

"Well, I simply came here to become an adventurer if possible. You know? To earn some money."

"I see, I see… You're one of those people, huh. However, judging from your appearance, I thought you were already one."

"Nope, I just came out of the boonies so there's no way I would be one. I found out about this city by chance, so I immediately departed when the first chance to do so arose."

"Why did you come here now?"

"As I said, I came here when the first chance to leave my previous place arose. What? Is it bad to come here at this time or something? Should I leave now, then?"

I could just enter through the other gates unnoticed if they don't let me pass. Also, the reason why I kept going on and on was so that the guard wouldn't be able to poke holes on my story.

Also, of course, I hadn't lied once in my statements up until now. During my gathering of information about the dungeon, I noticed that there was a [Lie Detecting Magic Item (50,000 DP)] in the DP Catalog and decided to avoid lying just for safety's sake.

DP-wise, it cost half as much as a [Healing Scroll (100,000 DP)] and [Summon Golem (100,000 DP)]. It wouldn't be surprising at all if the Empire handed them out more freely at important positions.

All in all, I need to watch out on what I say.

The [Ordinary Cave] was far enough away from town to basically be in the countryside, and I had indeed decided to become an adventurer so that I could freely gather information. Of course, I wanted to become an adventurer just for the sake of becoming one.

"Oh, I see. My apologies for questioning you. It's just that… y'know, we need to carefully inspect whoever enters the city."

"Really? That's perfectly understandable. Can I go inside the city now, or do I need something to do that?"

"Do you have any form of personal identification? If not, you'll need to pay five silver coins and one copper coin."

…I checked the wallet I had brought with me. Inside was ten silver coins, ten noticeably big copper coins, and twenty smallish copper coins. Great. I brought enough with me.

There were gold, silver, and copper coins in the DP Catalog's treasure section. Ten of a certain coin was equivalent to a single one of a larger version of that coin, and ten of those large coins were equivalent to one coin of a rarer metal. For example, ten copper coins were worth one large copper coin, and ten large copper coins were worth one silver coin. I didn't know if there was any coin more valuable than a gold coin, though.

"Oh, and the silver coins are a form of insurance. The guild will give you a form of identification after you become an adventurer. If you show that to me, I can return your coins. Though…"

He looked at me for a moment before continuing.

"…Someone from the countryside like you likely won't have enough money to pay for both this and your registration at the guild. It costs three silver coins for one person to become an adventurer, after all. You'll only have to pay three coppers as insurance if a guard follows you to the guild until you get your identification. Though I'll warn you now, two of those coppers will stay with us as payment for the extra work. I'm free right now, so we can go right away if you wish."

So basically, I've got two options. "Spend two coppers" or "Find my way to the Adventurer's Guild on my own, register there, come back, show my ID to get my money back, and then go back to the guild."

The second option sounds very tedious. Let's go for the first one. Having a guide is also better than going in blindly.

"That sounds great. You don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all. I'll show you to the guild. Hey, you over there. Watch the gate for me. I'm showing this traveler to the guild."

I gave him four copper coins. Thankfully, that meant I still had plenty of cash left.

The guards swapped places and I went with the first one towards the Adventurer's Guild. Two coppers to have him guide me there was pretty cheap. Probably.

I don't know how much it's worth so I guess I have to investigate it later.

We advanced down the main street of the city and soon enough delicious scents wafted into my nostrils. There must have been a lot of people making kebabs, as the tasty smell of meat was thick in the air.

I wondered what kind of meat was used to make kebabs in this world. They probably ended up huge.

Looking at a sign near one of the stands, they cost about five copper coins each. Hmm… I guess that means one copper coin is worth about 100 yen? Sounds about right to me.

Since I don't really have any business with the stands for now, I quickly left the place with the guard who stared at me for a moment, it looks like he wanted to say something but held it back.

"The foods in this place smells quite delicious."

"Ku-hum. Of course they are. Some of these are the specialty of our Empire, after all."

This guard seems like a good guy to me. I'll spare his life if he ever comes to our dungeon.

After walking for a bit, we finally reached a fairly large building. A sign with a drawing of swords, potions, and scrolls on it was hanging on the door. This signpost reads, "Adventurer's Guild".

When we went inside the premises of this fantasy world organization, what greeted me was a room filled with people who looked like the adventurers on light novels and mangas. Color me surprised when I saw them drinking so hard even though it's still noon.

Maybe they had worked all night and were on the verge of going home? Nah, on second thought, it's probably because they're just that slovenly.

I followed the guard to the counter and soon enough the receptionist handed over the registration forms. Surprisingly enough, it was wood-based paper, not sheep-skin parchment or anything like that.

I was impressed. The form looked handwritten. This world might not have developed printing technology yet but that's okay. This is extremely fantasy-like.

"Can you write your name? If not, I can write it for you at the cost of one copper."

"No need. I can do it myself."

Because of the God of Light's upgrade to my Language Comprehension, I already know how to read and speak this world's language. Heck, it seems like that God was too diligent that he even included the language of animals.

I took the form from the receptionist and began filling it in with information. For the name, I just wrote my full name, Shirokami Shun, and for the address, I wrote countryside.

What? You think I have the hobby of going around in the shadows and doing idiotic roundabout things?

I don't see a reason to hide my name just because I'm in a fantasy world. It's not like this is the dimension of Death Note for God's sake.

"Is this fine?"

"Hmm… Let's see. So it's Shirokami Shun, huh. And… Hmm, this is okay."

After confirming that there was nothing wrong with it, I quickly finished the rest of the registration. I paid three silver coins to cover the registration fee… leaving me with seven silver coins, ten large copper coins, and eighteen normal copper coins.

After a short wait, the receptionist gave me my Adventurer's Guild card.

"Now that you have personal identification, I will return to my post."

"Ah, okay. Thanks for all your help."

"Any time. It's my job. Next time you come to the city, it'll cost one copper to get inside."

The guard went back to his post after checking our guild cards. With that settled, I decided to start gathering information by checking out what quests the guild was offering.

"Now, I need to explain guild ranks."

"Hmm? Okay."

Scratch that, things weren't settled yet. There's still the cliché lecture I had to listen to.

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※~To be continued~※

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Author's Remarks:

※ Cliché adventurer's guild. What next? I don't know yet.