The Parallels of Split Paths

[Lorraine POV]

*In the Capital of the Kingdom*

"What the hell is this?"

From under my red hood, I was stunned at the beautiful building in front of me. Unlike the Adventurer Guild from Erlabyn, this building wasn't made of wood and stone. Instead, all around the outside, I see polished stone pillars surrounding a temple-like structure with stone statues of dragons before the main entrance.

"How is this an Adventurer Guild?"

"It's awe-inspiring the first time you see it, right? They decided to place this branch inside an old temple that was made long before the creation of Euqolia. It's actually not that uncommon, the main branch within each of the main territories are all situated in different historical monuments."

"Woaah!"

"Alright, that's enough admiring. Let's get you registered."

Just as I was taking in every later detail of the beautiful temple, My master pulls my hood to cover my face and starts walking up the steps into the temple. Walking into the Adventurer Guild, I see all sorts of beautiful paintings and cultures lined around the sides of the building with many strong-looking adventurers walking around and talking to each other. In the center of the temple, there was a large pillar with a giant blue ball floating on top of it.

"Master Aegis, what is that blue ball? it looks similar to the disk that I saw in the Adventurer Guild in my town."

"Oh, that. That's just a Guild Orb, it's similar to a Guild Disk that you've seen before. Instead of showing quests in the area, it shows quests across the territory and some major quests across the entire country.

"The entire country!"

"Yeah, Adventurers that operate at this branch are all extremely powerful and are the cream of the crop in this territory."

As we continued to move around, I noticed that a few adventurers look at us before quickly moving their gaze away. This happened not only with the adventurers but also some of the receptionists and staff working for the Adventurers Guild. I even overheard a few comments from two adventurers that were closer to us.

"You see that, she actually got an apprentice."

"Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy, I feel bad for whoever they are"

"..."

Hearing these comments, I felt a little nervous. So I turned to my master only to see that she had a 'nice' smile showing from under her hood.

"Master, why does everyone seem afraid of you?"

"Haaa. It is due to very rumours of me back when I was younger."

With that, Master stopped talking so I didn't question the topic anymore. After a little bit of walking, we arrive near the back of the main room, away from everything else. Stopping before a seemingly normal wall, I look confusingly at my master.

'What are we doing here? Shouldn't we go talk to one of the receptionists?"

From underneath her cloak, I see master pull out perfectly clear card in her hands and with a flick of her fingers, shoots it straight into the wall. Seeing the card about to impact the wall, I was think either two things would happen, either the card would just bounce off the wall or my master was strong enough to throw the card into the wall.

"!!"

Neither assumption was right. I see the card pace into the wall, leaving behind no hole, only creating ripples across the wall as if the wall was suddenly made of water. Then, I see the hole slowly expand from where the card went in. Eventually, there was a perfectly round hole allowing us to access another room. The crystal card was also there, floating on the other side of the wall.

I see my master walk forward so, I do the same and just as Master takes the card out of the air, the hole magically disappears behind me. We walk into a room that has nothing in it.

"Master, what was that?"

"A perk of being an envoy."

"Master, what is an envoy?"

"It's basically a special rank of extremely strong and unique people that the Adventurer Guild has."

"Hmmm, Master, you need to explain better."

In face of my little critique, my master removes her hood and then pulls mine off.

"You don't need to know all these things, I live by many mottos but one of them is: be strong, get strong, if you have time to think, you got time to get strong."

"..."

"As you can tell, I have never taken an apprentice before."

After flashing a proud smile, my master then knocks on one of the walls of an empty room and starts to feel the group shake. From the wall, an opening opens as a needle comes out of it. In addition to that, I see a paper float out along with it.

"Alright, fill in the paper and prick your finger and that will be it."

As the needle and paper float in front of me, I unravel the paper to see a bunch of areas for me to answer questions. Holding the piece of paper, I notice that I'm missing something crucial to fill it in.

"I don't have a pen, Master."

"There's no need for a pen and lousy handwriting, you just need to think of the answer and it will appear on the paper."

"O..k"

Holding the piece of paper, I look at the first thing: Name.

'Lorraine.'

With a thought, I see my name printed and written in perfect handwriting appearing on the sheet of paper.

'wow'

Soon enough, after a bit more thinking the paper was filled and just letting it go, the paper rolls up again before floating back into the hole in the wall. Turning my gaze to the floating needle, I simply touch it with my left hand and it immediately becomes blood-red and heads into the hole as well.

Looking back on my finger, there wasn't even a single mark left by it. After all that has happened in this building, I wasn't ever surprised anymore. Soon, a card comes out of the hole and lands on my hand. Holding the copper card, I see a familiar flame mark on it, along with some of the information I wrote down.

"Alright, now that that's done. Let's get you started."

Clap clap

With two claps, I feel the room shake again as a mini Guild Orb appears in the middle of the room. Walking up to it, I see my master spin the orb around as if looking for something.

"Hmmm, yeah, this place will do. Lorraine, can you give me your Adventurer Card?"

As my master turned toward me, I could a glint in her eyes that made me shiver but still I gave her the card in my hands. Taking the card, I see my master press a somewhere on the orb and then place the card on the appears.

BZZZ

Suddenly there is a buzz and I see a screen pop up.

{This Quest is unavailable for your rank, please choose a quest with a lower difficulty.}

Reading the pop-up, I was shocked, scared and terrified as I looked at Master wondering what she was trying to do. My Master Sees the message too but instead of choosing another quest she simply takes out her crystal card.

"How about no."

{Override Occurred. 500 Glory Medallions Deducted.}

After that, the screen disappears and Master gives back my card.

"M-Master, ummm, what was that?"

"A perk of being an envoy. You just need to pay up to gain some permissions. Money makes the world go around. Glory Medallions, usually just called Glory, is the inside currency of the Adventurer Guild. Whenever you complete a quest, you gain some. It seems like you've been awarded some beforehand."

Looking down at my card, I could see that it showed that I had 32 Glory. It must have been for my help in the mutated S.T.A. a year ago.

/////////////////////////////

ADVENTURER GUILD

Name: Lorraine

Rank: Copper (1 Star)

Race: Elf

Active quests: Undead extermination

Glory Medallions: 32

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\

"Hmmm, ok...Wait a minute. You just tried to distract me, why do I have a quest called Undead extermination!"

"Consider it an entrance test to your apprenticeship. I got to see your skills."

"What!"

"Come on, there no time to fret. You'll need time to kill some stuff."

I feel my body get lifted as I see a blue portal open up before us and we jump inside.

"NOooooooo..."

...

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Aegis' Fun Fact: Over the few years that the Adventurer Guild has existed there have been many things that are refined and fixed. One thing is fake identities. Imagine registering as an Adventurer and writing down random information so that you have a fake identity to do crimes. That was a big problem. Now with the aid of Elystrid keeping a sample of someone's blood, and a commission to the Magic Association, we got a pretty good solution with the bonus of not needing to try and decipher the hand righting of people who just fight monsters every day.