The sun cleared the horizon and peeked over the city wall of the Republic of Magnone, short Magnone City. It was the largest, strongest mercantile city in the world. It was built east side along the big river Amaranth River, which went from the north, the Devil Mountains, to the south and flowed out to the Red Ocean.

All kind of craftsmen from all quarters competed ruthlessly here against each other to sell their wares. Some people made their dream became true, and others were crushed by their pipe dream and lost everything. 

Due to the immense size of the Magnone City, it was divided into six districts. The famous districts were the tourist district with different kind of entertainment facilities, the maker district, where the best weapons or tools were made and sold. And of course the harbour zone, with the best seafood.

In a dorm, in a woman apartment, the cuckoo clock called out, and Emilia opened her eyes. She stood up and glanced towards the clock. It was seven in the morning. Yawing, she opened the red curtain in the room. The small sunlight embraced the moderate space, two standard bed, two writing desks and a sofa with a small dining table, enough for a girls evening. 

Emilia stretched her body and shook off her tiredness. She slowly moved to the other bed. "Lucy, it is seven o'clock, wake up." The other girl didn't show any reaction. Emilia touched the cat-like ears of Lucy. "It's time Lucy, and the holiday is over. Now the work starts." Lucy, a catgirl, showed only less resistance, despite she hated it if someone touched her ears. "Meow, I...holiday..forever" she muttered in sleep while she was clutching her pillow. 

Emilia decided to take a shower before she came with a new strategy to wake up the girl who was sleeping like a stone. 

Emilia stood naked under the shower and turned the hot water, which bubbled from the showerhead. Hot water wasn't common here, only people with a high paid job could afford it. 

The hot water dropped over her pointy ears and passed on her long translucent blue hair, along with on her smooth snow white skin. Even she was a half-elf, she possessed the natural beauty of an elf. 

After she enjoyed the hot shower, she came out, wrapped in a towel. In the right hand, she was holding a mug with hot water and moved towards the target. With a smirk, she emptied it over the sleeping cat girl. Lucy jumped as if stung by a bee. 

"Me-, not again, Emmmmmiiii"

Her face was wet, also her shoulder-length velvet black hair. With her black sparkled eyes, she looked at Emilia furiously. Her slender obsidian tail supported the aversion to this wake-up treatment. 

"I don't like it" cried Lucy again. 

"If you can wake up alone, I will end up with this harsh treatment. I don't want to be late for work, not again". 

But both knew it wouldn't happen. Emilia had tried several other treatments to wake her up, but this was the best way to handle it.

"Meow, I need more sleep, I can't.." started the cat girl to beg. 

"OK. If Hermes ask me about you, I will--"

Before Emilia could finish her sentence, the catgirl jumped from her bed and disappeared into the bathroom. Lucy hated the name Hermes, especially the guy behind this name. 

Emilia smiled and took her uniform from the cupboard. First, she dried her long blue hair in front of a mirror and started to prepare for the day. 

First, she slipped into the long black skirt and followed in a clean white long sleeve shirt. Both were made of high quality, the best quality which could the guild offer. Then she slid into the black boots which reached to her knees. 

Over the shirt, she wore a black waistcoat with gold detail included. On the left chest area of the waistcoat flaunted the emblem of the Magnone City in thick gold line. A shield, divided into three parts, Y-form, in the top was a coin, bottom left was a hammer, bottom right was a book. 

She adjusted everything carefully. After she was sure that there wasn't any dust or filthy left, she took the last part, and a small gold jabot put around her neck. 

She wasn't vain or obsessed with the cloth, whether it matched or not. The guild attached great importance to the appearance, especially to the clean uniform. If they didn't wear it correctly, they got harsh punishment.

Since Hermes had promoted to a higher position, everything became fussy for the worker. 

She sighed. After she turned her back and front, she corrected several minor issues, after she was 100% sure, she grabbed the three straps golden belt and put around her tummy. In the round plate was her position craved. Advisor.

Advisors main task was to help adventurers by quest, registration and other necessities. 

After she finished with the adjustment, the guild uniform embraced her beautiful slender body and her well-endowed chest. 

The bathroom door opened, and Lucy came out with a guilty facial expression. "Emilia..." she started with a sweet voice. Emilia didn't turn her face towards her, she knew, if Lucy started "Emilia" instead "Emi", it was always a request. In this context, Emilia knew what she wanted to have. "Didn't you hand over your guild uniforms for washing?" she asked with a stern expression. 

"Meow, I did, I think yester--..." she tried to remember.

"Like this?" Emilia pointed with her index finger towards a mountain of clothes in a corner. It looked like someone had put clothes together, to throw it away. 

"I mean today, Yes, meow. I am going to give it today. Please, only today, can I borrow yours, only this time, meow?" 

Emilia couldn't be longer angry about her and said with a clear voice "Only this TIME".

"Oh, meow, thanks, oh thanks, I love you, Emi" she grabbed one of the uniforms. 

Each guild worker got several copies of a guild uniform, so they didn't have to worry. But in the case of Lucy, who never care about anything, looked it different. 

Without Emilia support, Lucy would have been kicked out of the guild a long time ago. 

After they settled their business with the clothes and everything, they left the dorm. It was a vast dorm, only for the women, who were working for the guild. 

The guild association or the guild was the current superpower after the humanity nation had fallen. They influenced reach in several countries, even in the Empire. 

"One week's holiday was too short..., I don't wanna work." complained the Lucy with a sad face. She looked like a girl who didn't want to go to school after the holiday.

Emilia enjoyed the warm sunshine and the fresh spring air, which felt on her beautiful face. It was cloudless, and it was a lovely day. As she walked, she was able to hear several birds sound from trees. 

They reached the main street; it was empty. Both encountered several exhausted and filthy adventurers who were coming from their trip. Here and there they heard shutter noise of several shops, which were preparing to the oncoming tsunami of the crowd. 

The early morning was the best time to enjoy the surrounding calmly and in their beauty sight before it became really crowd. Magnone City was the most visit and frequent city in the world. In Magnone City, you can find everything that your heart desire, in both ways, good and bad. 

After the little walk, both guild workers stopped in front of a lonely brick stone building. The two-story building was enough for two small families to live. A wooden sign hung from the door, and on that sign was a cake engraved with white colour. It was big enough to see from the other side of the street. It was a bakery called Sunflower.

As they both entered, they could smell the strong roasted bean in the air. An overweight woman was sitting on the table and grounded the beans. She left her head and greeted both.

"Hya girls, long time not seen."

As she stood up, her long orange curly hair felt on the side, which she had tidied. Also, her big masculine face was able to see. She wore a white apron. 

"Hi Deidre, how are you?" said Emilia with a smile towards the dwarf, with the name Deidre. 

Both guests looked around in the bakery as usual and took a seat on a cleaned table. There wasn't anyone except the worker of the Sunflower in the room. 

Still, the building was old, inside everything looked new. Sunflower claimed in short as the best bakery for the sweets and non-alcohol drinks in the whole Magnone City. 

"Good, good. Too many customers. Too much work" said the dwarf woman.

 

"A hot chocolate for Emilia and cold milk for Lucy, right?" both nodded. She vanished behind the kitchen, and it didn't look long, she came with a table with two drinks and served them. 

"So, how was the holiday? I am sure ya happy to work now" she said with an ironic smile. 

"Not bad. We enjoyed it," said Emilia. 

"Deidre without you it boring, Shut down the bakery and come back, I don't like Hermes," said Lucy in rude. 

Before Deidre opened this bakery six months ago, she was the super advisor in the guild, also trained both as they started in the guild four years ago. 

"Don't be rude, Lucy. Ya should work on yar attitude. I hope ya not a burden for Emilia" she warned Lucy. 

While drinking the hot drink, Emilia took a newspaper from the table "Uh, what this?" she asked in curiosity. The dwarf looked "ah, they humanity summoned again, 20 heroes, four heroes died during the summoning" said she short and sweet. 

Although heroes weren't allowed in Magnone City, they were a hot and interesting topic among the people. 

Emilia "Oh, it seems a really risk ritual." 

"Who knows? The humans are strange species" added the dwarf her comment.

"I would see a hero, did you see one, Deidre?" asked Emilia curious to the old dwarf. 

"Ya not. I heard they'a bigger and taller than average human, and maybe they have a tail or something. It doesn't hurt to see one." said she and started again to work on her previous work, grounding roasted beans. 

Emilia muttered, "I would have loved to see a hero," and drunk her hot chocolate empty while Lucy put her face on the table and glancing tedious in the air.

"Have a nice day, Lucy and Emilia. Ya both tomorrow came, OK?" said the Deidre after the two prepared to leave the bakery. 

Both thanked and left the Sunflower. As they made towards the guild, Emilia heard a voice, and she turned towards the source. 

"Hi, Ms Rayna" greeted Emilia with more respect. 

It was a woman with long navy blue hair, and she wore a distinct silver cloak with black knobs, her top suit she left unbutton.

It was the Captain of Defense Shield, one of the strongest woman in Magnone City. Her distinctive tiger-ear, slender and voluptuous body made her attractive, despite her rough past, which was seeing on her face. Her right eye was covered in an eyepatch. 

"Emilia, I already said it. Call me Rayna or Sis" she responded with a robust military voice. 

Rayna had a lot of sympathy for Emilia because both were half-human. 

"We can have lunch together today, what do you think, Emilia," said the tiger woman. 

Emilia flinched towards Lucy, who nodded. Both agreed, and continue towards the guild.

They walked a little further until they reached the imposing Guild building. They didn't enter through the main entrance like other people, for the worker, there was a separate entrance.

As they came close towards the side entrance, they saw an old elf, holding a cane. His silver hair was combed back. He dressed similar to Emilia but wore a black trouser. Also, his clothes had several extravagant stuff, which showed his position in the guild, the super advisor, Hermes.

 

As Lucy saw the old elf, her mood became depressed and darkened. 

He was standing right to the entrance and inspected all workers who passed him. Usually, this wasn't a duty for a super advisor, but Hermes insisted himself to check each worker if they dressed correctly. Beside him was a mirror and also a chair with tissues. 

"Emilia..good!!" greeted the old elf with a grumpy and mustered her before he let pass her. He knew all workers by their name. 

As Lucy tried to sneak past, "Lucy, wait!!" said he as if shot out of the gun. Lucy stiffed like she was petrified.

His hawk eyes stopped by Lucy's neck "Lucy, your jabot is on the wrong side!!" also he stamped with his cane in the ground, a little dusty flew away.

Lucy gulped and quickly adjusted it in front of the mirror. His glimpse wandered slowly and stopped as he saw her belt.

"Lucy, your belt isn't in the right position!!" the next shot. His stamped again on the ground, this time a little bit heavier.

Quickly Lucy adjusted her belt. 

As he saw her boots, his eyes stopped, he stamped three times. Hermes didn't like it if people didn't wear the guild uniform right, but he hated if he saw dirty or filthy on the uniform.

Lucy didn't feel right. 

Hermes erupted.

"HOW MANY TIME I HAD ALREADY SAID IT? YOU BOOTS IS AGAIN DIRTY? CLEAN UP!" 

His blood pressure rocked to the peak. Hermes interpreted dirty or filthy on the guild uniform as an insult towards the guild. 

Nobody winced, they got to use to it. If Hermes yelled, it was because of Lucy, and if Hermes became furious, it was because of Lucy. Some people set a bet if Hermes would die it would be because of Lucy. 

She quickly took a tissue and bent herself to clean up her both boots. While cleaning up, she muttered, "Die you old wrack".

Hermes' voice became tense "Lucy, did you say something?!!" with a fierce voice which could even bisect the air. 

"Meow, no-nothing" she quickly took a straight stance, after she had cleaned up. The old elf mustered Lucy from top to bottom; then his eyes wandered towards the next prey. There had build a little crowed, waiting to be yelled by Hermes.

Despite this odd, the job had less risk, and they earned a lot of money. After the adventurers, the guild members were the second high paid employers in Magnone City what it made to a coveted job. 

Lucy escaped and walked towards Emilia, who was waiting with a worried face. 

Emilia watched the whole spectacle and shook her head as she saw Lucy. "Do you will ever learn?" to contrary Lucy, who didn't care about what happened recently, Smiling she said," I got used to it".

"I don't mean about the yelling, and you should take care.." before she could finish, she was greeted by a bunch of other workers inside. 

"Hi Emilia," said a fox guy.

"Hi, I missed you" greeted a young elf woman with joy.

"Hey, look, guys, Emilia is back," said a guy.

Emilia knew she was very popular in the guild, especially for her hardworking and also for her beauty, well by guys; it was the latter. Despite this, she tried to act normal. As a half-elf, it wasn't easy for her to claim this position. Thanks to her persistent and hardworking, she was able to reach this position.

The guild has more than ten counter, but only five or six opened at the same time. Lucy and Emilia took their seat and started with the paperwork, which was placed on their desk. 

After a few minutes, Lucy moved her face towards Emilia, who was deep in her work. "I'm tired now, I need more holiday, meow" complained Lucy.

It didn't take long before the first few adventurers entered the guild. A group of three adventurers headed towards Emilia. 

"Hi Emilia, we completed the normal dungeon quest". The leader of the group put the quest paper and a fist size dungeon core atop. 

The world was filled with thousands of different Dungeons, and each day new Dungeon popped up. They were categorized into three groups.

The urgent Dungeons. There was lurking dangerous soul monster, which could harm people. These had a short deadline to clear up, and also these Dungeons were completed by the strongest adventures. 

The normal Dungeons - these were the common one. They weren't a significant threat for the world but still needed to clear up. 

And last the low Dungeons - this spawn only weak soul monsters. This type of Dungeons wasn't particulate cleared up because they were used as a training place, or as an eternal supplement of soul crystal.

 

The leader, a fox guy, pulled a big bag, which was filled with many soul crystals in different shape and size and put it on the counter. "This is the soul crystal we had collected there. It wasn't easy, so I hope you pay us enough" said he with expectant. 

"I will see what I can do." Emilia took the bag and brought towards a magical scale, which determined the price. After that, she put the bag on the assembly line, which went direct in an underground. In the underground of the guild were a lot of factories, where the soul crystal was extracted in pure crystal. The purse crystal was distributed over the world for any purpose.

She collected the amount of money which had displayed on the scale and handed it over.

After the group of adventurers checked the amount, they showed a little disappointed. It was common that the adventurers expected too much. But they got used to it. 

"Sorry, but that's all," said Emilia with empathy, she knew how hard it was for the adventurers, to risk they own life to collect soul crystal.

"No problem", said the leader and split the total reward. 

"Finally, I can pay my debt for my staff," said an elf with relief, the third, a dwarf. "Yeah, with that, I can finally buy a new protected plate. I hope the dropped items are useful." 

"I also have several things to do. Do we see tonight in the Caesar Inn? I invite you both" said the leader. 

"Oh, a drinking party, I'm in," said the dwarf with a big smile. 

"Sorry, but I have another quest, sorry." said the elf with a guilty expression.

"No problem, have fun then," said the fox guy without any grudge. 

The three left the party by clicking "Left Party" from their floating window. Partying with others was the foundation to clear up a dungeon. The soul energy distributed equally.

There was a different type of adventure groups. Some adventurers were partying with others lifelong like a family. Other came together to completed a specific quest and left the party. 

"Goodbye, Emilia," said the three, and they left the guild.

The next wasn't an adventurer, it was a man in his middle age, wearing a white uniform. 

"Hi Gilliam, what can I do for you?" asked Emilia to the well known pharmacist. 

"Hi, Emilia, I want to give a quest. I need a kilo Clinban herbs". He opened with his request. 

He gave her a quest paper with the important information: description and a reward. Some people brought their quest themselves, or Emilia wrote for them down.

"The reward should be 4000 lux. Please send it to the Star Bloom Clan," also he handed the money with the charge. 

"Thanks, I will pin it on the quest board," said Emilia and put the quest paper down. Gilliam thanked and disappeared.

The crowd in the guild became little, also the time past quick, it was already noon. 

"I'm sooooo hungry, I want to eeeaat," said the exhausted cat girl beside her. Emilia got furious "It isn't even half of the day, you already complaining. Pull yourself together".

The cat only sulked.

"Hi Emilia," said a shy elf. She wasn't alone, and three other elves accompanied her.

Emilia looked and was surprised. "Hi, Aieries". 

"My sister went on a quest, but she didn't come yesterday, so I want to ask you if she is back," said the young elf with a nervous voice. 

"Ah, you mean Yinvyre, isn't she back? If I remember she went to the south" said Emilia. Yinvyre was an elf adventurer who was under Emilia. 

"Yes, but she took last week another quest. A guarding job towards Beast Groove". 

Emilia searched for a paper and took one. "Ah, yes merchant called Brent, a guarding quest, I think she should arrive today. Maybe they have some delay" she tried to cheer up the young elf. 

"Thanks, Emilia, I am going to wait here then," said the young elf, left the counter. Emilia looked Aieries with a worried face before she continued with her work. The young elf and Yinvyre were sibling, who lived together since their parent died.

As Emilia prepared to finish the paperwork to go to lunch, a shadow fall on her face. She lifted her head and saw a guy. His appearance didn't match an adventurer, he looked like a vagabond. He wore different cloth parts tied together with several bandages. He stank of ale. Also, his eyes were like dead fish.

From his appearance, she was sure it was a human. She had already encountered several humans, but this guy looked different. 

"Hello," said the guy with a deep voice, he seemed a little bit unsure. She smiled as usual, and "Welcome to the guild, what can I do for you?"

"I..I want to join the guild, you know become adventurer," said the guy with a nervous and distracted voice. 

She quickly judged him as a bumpkin. She had encountered such people many times, people with a pipe dream. Most newbies romanticized adventures and ended up like death, or ran away. 

"You know what an adventurer job is, right? Killing monster, go in a dangerous situation". She doubted if he was able to be an adventurer.

"Of course." said the guy. 

She still doubts if he suited for that job, but she couldn't prevent people like him from joining as an adventurer. 

"OK. So, what's your name?" she asked friendly while she took a quill. 

"Vin. My name is Vin".

Her mind filled with only one thought as she wrote down. 

This guy won't survive long as an adventurer.

She had even a little bit of compassion for this bumpkin.