LXXXIX

Once I have my signed slip, I leave through the way which I entered, the little door on the wall. I re-emerge into the main guild hall, where I quickly return to the receptionist's desk. I show her the slip there, and, after commenting on my high ranking for a first-timer, she quickly makes a guild identification card for me, which has my name, a magically reproduced version of my likeness, and my rank upon it.

Once I have this safely stored away in my pocket, and with it my position in the guild secured, I look for my friend. I find him at a table alone, not less than ten empty mugs stacked into a tower in front of him.

"Curse this poison resistance ability, what's the point if my body just casts away all the effects of the beer…"

"Why, hello there, my good friend. You haven't racked up too large a tab, have you? I half expected to find you having bought a few rounds of drinks for everyone, at which point I was going to have to sneak out and leave the repercussions to you!"

"Mm, hello. No, you might be unbearably obnoxious, but to do such a thing to you would just be cruel. Especially knowing your finances, after all your money was gone, the guild would look to me to cover the rest, then we'd be thrown in jail, a bit much just to get back at you. So, how could I benefit from such a shortsighted action?" Anyway, how did your evaluation go?"

"I am now a B-rank adventurer," I say, pulling out my guild I.D. card as evidence.

I expect, and hope for, amazement and shock on his part; instead, he just sighs, saying "Well, I can hardly be hard on myself for losing in my duel to you then, can I? Congratulations, I suppose. I've racked up a couple hundred silver on the tab, I've received adequate compensation for escorting you around, I think I'll take my leave now."

"Ah, one more question: how does one go about accepting requests?"

"There's a board over there," he says, directing towards a corner of the room so crowded with adventurers that I can't even see what they are surrounding. "It has missions on it, from people and businesses to the government and guild itself. The missions clearly state the reward and the recommended level of the adventurer; adventurer's may accept quests at their level or up to one level below. Most quests for standard-level adventurers are given that way. Occasionally, adventurers will be assigned quests by the guild, usually involving group monster extermination or involvement in the various wars with the monsters. As a B-ranked adventurer, you actually have a decent chance of being called up on one of these missions; while dangerous, they do pay very well, there are certainly benefits.

"Well," he says, standing up, "I really must be going, I have spent all the time here that I could spare. If you need any further information, I'm sure another adventurer could help out. Well, I'll see you around."

"Yeah, sure, so long as you don't feel like sticking around."

"Heh. You won't get any more free labor out of me, I assure you!" he says, walking away.

[Want to bet?] I can't help but think, but I keep that one to myself.

I head over to the corner that he had pointed towards, shoving my way through the other adventurers to get to the board with the job listings. At first I just intend to grab the first one intended for a B-rank adventurer, but a quick glance at the board tells me that there will be nothing quick about it. The entire board, perhaps fifteen feet long by five feet high, is plastered with pieces of paper, countless requests of great variety. Even with the large letters stamped onto each denoting the recommended adventurer rank, looking through them is quite difficult.

All I can seem to find are requests for E and D-rank adventurers, with a few for C-rank, requests that are constantly being added and taken away, by a guild employee and the various adventurers respectively. After nearly a minute of looking, I finally spot a request for a B-rank adventurer, revealed when a request covering it is taken; without contemplating, I tear it from the wall. By the time my arm retracts, a number of other people have already tried to get it; I give them a shake of my head as I push my way back out from the crowd.

Finally, I take a look at the assignment. Three gold, in exchange for cleaning up a group of several thousand slimes and some other monsters terrorizing a nearby village. Honestly, I have no idea what a good payment is for a request of this nature, but this doesn't seem too unfair to me.

[It's a good thing I got ahold of this, there seems to be a greater demand for jobs than there is supply among higher level adventurers. Toril made the selling out of adventurers to the government as soldiers sound rather bad, but with prospects this bad, perhaps any job is welcome, especially if it pays well. Though I guess I'm not sure if the situation is always like this or not over by the job board, maybe there's just an extra high demand for jobs at the moment.]

I open up my map I had acquired earlier and search through it for the village. With some relief, I see that it is less than a dozen miles away, to the Northeast, heading towards the heart of the empire.

[Is there anything stopping me from heading out this instant? I've got weapons, clothes… I can't afford potions, no point in noting their absence among my current materials… ah, yes, food. And maybe some gear for traveling? Well, it's not all that far away, I can return to the city afterwards. In fact, if I go now I probably wouldn't need to get any food… though I guess I may as well stock up, I have a dimensional storage ring, my food will last quite some time in there. So, I just need to buy some groceries, and I'll be off!]

After formulating my two-item-long to-do list, I lead the guild building through the front entrance. The sun has lowered to the horizon, my time spent undergoing the rank evaluation having added up to several hours.

I approach the first person I see, asking where I may find a place to buy some food for my journey. With a surprising lack of conflict, the man describes the path I must take and urges me to hurry to get my things before the markets close and curfew hits.

Seeing no reason to ignore his advice, I hurry down the route he has prescribed. After a few minutes, I arrive in a large square where many market stalls are set up. The majority are closed down, and the few that remain seem to be approaching that point.

Not requiring anything too special, I go to a stall purporting to sell bread. There, I offer to buy up all of his remaining stock for a handful of silver coins.

"You are aware that this bread will soon be stale right? Unless you have a lot of people to feed, you'll not need that much. Furthermore, your offer is too much, I would not feel right accepting such an amount for bread slated to be thrown out in only a few minutes."

"Bah, take the money, I assure you, the food is worth it to me. Unless you have objections to selling to me for some other, more important, reason…?"

"I'm not such a fool to turn down a generous offer, if you insist, I will be happy to sell you the bread for this amount."

"Good. Now, help me load it into my dimension ring." Grabbing the nearest loaves, I shove them into my ring, which consumes them as they get close. The shopkeeper briefly eyes my ring with unconcealed greed; he then shakes his head, returning to normal as he assists.

Once I have gathered up all of the bread, I race to the nearest city gates. They have already started to close by the time I arrive, forcing me to squeeze past.

"Hmph. You know you can't come back in until the morning, right?"

"Yes, I'm aware, I just picked up a request from the guild hall, it was rather urgent so I'm setting out to fulfill it now."

"Oh? Well then, never mind. Our city has an agreement with the guild, just show your guild identification and you will be let in at any time."

"Really? Why, that's mighty convenient, thanks for telling me. Well, I have a job to do, I'll be back." Saying such, I race off into the night, not at all limiting my speed as I make my way towards my destination.

[You know, they really should advertise that fact, being able to enter and exit a city at any hour is a pretty big perk. Though, I suppose, advertising it might lure in the wrong type of people, those who would register as a rank E adventurer just to move through the city at all times, the criminal types. Actually, considering that they are taking in so many adventurers here, maybe they see no reason to advertise this perk, perhaps they have concluded that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.]