Sitting around the now ruined table was a band of adventurers. Four out of 5 of them had reacted fast enough to move their food and drinks before the runic knight smashed into the table. 

“Oh, Oh, this dainty tavern is quite lively,” A dwarf with long brown hair and an even longer beard tied in knots heartily laughed as he chugged down a pint of ale. He had a giant war-axe that was almost equal in size to him strapped to his back. 

“Indeed, it’s my first time seeing a father remonstrate his sons in a bar of all places.” A beautiful elven woman with blue turquoise hair put her plate of food on top of the fallen runic knight and continued eating.

 A burly man with a glimmering mane of blond hair absentmindedly continued biting into a giant leg of boar. It was clear that this man wasn't human, likely another demihuman. As adventurers, demihumans could experience a more fair treatment. Who would have the balls to belittle a powerful demihuman, backed by a guild? However, only the stronger tribes of demihumans were capable of joining adventurer parties, unlike the waitress.

Amid the group was a child-sized figure in a cloak. The person had mismatched eye colors, and strands of dark crimson hair could be seen hanging out of the cloak. The figure continued to greedily chug a cup of milk and then resounded “AHHHHH. Barkeep another!!!” No one continued to look at this misplaced and most likely dense child. 

The only unlucky member of the group was a human man. He had fiery red hair with lively streaks of blue throughout, radiating as if alive with electricity. “Ahh, I was too focused on the magic item that sensed when the elder lich was near that I completely zoned out there. This was my favorite shirt. Who will tell me why this guy is elbow deep in my stew?” 

The other companions stared at their leader with contempt and quickly acted like they did not hear the question he raised.

Feeling wronged by their stares, he continued, “Eh, come on guys, are you still mad about taking on this mission. We needed this mission. I know. I know. No one wanted to come here, but how else are we supposed to eat? That Boris fellow was offering an extravagant reward for defeating the lich. We as mortals are honor-bound in destroying this undead evil. Yes, he is fat, and the looks he gives Rose is disgusting. But, won’t our fame skyrocket.” 

The dwarf between sips of his ale candidly replied, “that kid over there was acting rowdy, and amid his act, he threw the runic knight here. But that isn’t the problem. The problem is. Our leader was unable to react in time, which basically makes our fame skyrocket in the wrong direction. Just look around, everyone is staring at us like we are a bunch of idiots because ya didn't move your food.” 

The child quickly began shaking their head in agreement “that’s right did you not see my cool chugging of the milk and relaxed asking of another, but you went and ruined it by acting in a daze, tell him, Rose. 

The elf continued to eat her meal gracefully except for the human table beneath her plate; the scene was one of high refinement. 

The child began to pout after being ignored. 

“Ahaha, who cares. Who cares. I smell that the boy is quite strong. The stench of death is basically rolling off his vicinity. I want to fight.” the burly man finally spoke, showing sharpened canines. 

“Huh, you idiot the death stench is coming from his master, not him” the kid wiggled their nose then covered it with their hands. 

“Eh, you’re right, I was so focused on the kid I forgot all about his dainty little master” the burly man licked his lips, staring at the disguised Thomas as if he were prey. 

The elf finally finished her very rare steak and dabbed a napkin on her mouth. Then she looked towards William. “So great leader shall we intervene and raise our fame or whatever. Also, Boris got thrown out of the tavern by the kid, so I don’t know if he died.” 

William was shocked to hear that their employer was possibly killed in action. “Eh, why did no one intervene when this was happening?” This is bad. This is really bad. If word gets out, our guild's prestige will go down the drain. 

Rose, the elf rolled her eyes, “Of course we did not intervene. Our great leader was in another world, so we didn’t know if we should act, thus starting a battle with two unknown people. With you gone and our food getting colder by the second, we all decided to just ignore it until you noticed.”

Ah, if I had known Boris was in danger, I would have acted on it. Why, do these guys always goof on when we are on a quest? Hmm, I really don’t want to get mixed up with Boris’s personal life, but if he finds out we were in the bar the whole time, I doubt we’ll be getting the commission. I could just leave during the mayhem, then no one would be the wiser. Nah better to just have the kid apologize and mediate between the two parties. Going along this thought process, William looked over towards Haruto. He began to casually walk towards Haruto with a friendly smile on his face. 

“Ah, wait for me. Will, that lad smells strong. I can’t wait to fight,” the burly man quickly followed in pursuit. 

William hurriedly whispered to the burly man while maintaining his smile, “Eh Richard, I’m not going to fight. Just talk, alright. I didn’t see what happened, but I’m sure if the lad apologizes. I mediate between him and Boris. Everything will work out.” 

The child, not wanting to miss out on the fight, quickly skipped beside William and gleefully said, “I saw everything. The guy said he was going to erase all our memories. I doubt you could talk him out of it. But hey when pigs fly, haha.” 

William stayed optimistic about the encounter “What's so funny? Of course, I can. The boy and I are both hot-blooded young men, which means we share a bond. What young lad doesn’t dream of being an adventurer? I’ll just offer him an autograph and show him some pointers, and I’m sure he’ll listen. 

The dwarf scoffed at the hopeful thinking and remained seated as he began drinking Richard’s pint of ale. To let good ale go to waste is an insult to Thorin. 

“I swear to Aphrotos if you drink my ale Lostor. I will skin you.” Richard snarled but didn't look back as his attention was on Haruto. Who, had been icily staring the group down.

Rose merely offered some words of caution and remained at the broken table. She had pulled out her bow, resting it on top of the runic knight’s body. “Be careful of his master. We still don’t know who these two are, but they are at the very least stronger than a runic knight.”  

The three quickly made their way towards the devil-like Haruto, who had been quietly staring at them. 

Once they almost got in his range of attack, Haruto opened his mouth, “how nice we have three volunteers come quickly, and it will be over just as quickly.” My weeb senses are tingling. I feel these people aren’t so simple, but it won’t matter if they just let me flick. If they don’t, I’ll just go all out and have Thomas back me up. Yes, make yourself useful, my henchman. 

William purposefully stopped outside of Haruto's attack range. He tried to coax Haruto into peaceful negation. “Kid, I’m afraid we aren’t going to have our memories erased. How about we just call it here and you apologize to Mr.Boris. As a favor, I’ll show you some secrets only calamity ranked adventures know.” 

Haruto didn't reply. 

This made William think he was mulling over the offer, so he winked at Richard and the child. 

Haruto, in thought, was a lot warier. I knew my weeb senses would never fail me. From the sound of their rank’s title, they must be pretty strong. Haruto retorted, “I’ll be the one who decides whether or not your memories need erasure, old man. Oi Thomas, what’s this calamity rank all about?”

 William tried to correct Haruto as his smile momentarily turned stiff.“Uh, I’m not old. I’m only…” Thomas spoke over William. Which made him greatly dejected as age was his one soft spot.

The disguised Thomas elegantly waved an arm and half-bowed. Let's see he hates filler, so I shall cut out the useless junk. As a being of his strength, the level of ranks hold no meaning. “Of course, young master, I readily comply. In this world, the adventurer’s guild gives quests based on ranks, and calamity is one of said ranking titles.” 

After waiting for Thomas to continue, Haruto eyed the idiot who just told him the most obvious part “Are you perhaps a captain, Thomas? Of the obvious variety. What I meant was where on the scale does the calamity rank fall? Is it the top, the middle, or the bottom?” I'm a weeb of course. I've heard of adventurer's guilds. I know more adventurer guilds than you know spells.

 Thomas was just trying to earn some bootlicking points by answering quickly and removing what he believed Haruto would consider filler. Who would have guessed his young master would now want it. Truly an eccentric being, perhaps the more powerful one becomes, the more strange they are. Thomas cleared his throat and explained, “the calamity rank is indeed very high on the list. 

The list goes from good Samaritans ranked adventures at the bottom of the barrel with 25 levels of rating. They help with low-level quests such as a cat stuck in a tree or walking a dog.

 Next are Apprentices with 10 levels of rating. It involves adventurers who can be hired for quests such as running some errands like delivering goods within a city or bringing information on local ruffians. 

After that, in order is bronze, silver, and gold, where adventurers can take on real quests like monster hunting and are allowed to travel across international borders. The bronze level is considered the actual beginning level of adventurers when they can clear a low-level dungeon with their group. All of these ranks include 10 ratings each. But even these are not the big leagues, and likely no one could name a rating 5 gold-ranked adventurer off the top of their heads. 

The first significant rank that garnishes international prestige is Crisis ranked with 5 ratings. These adventurers are renowned monster hunters. They are groups who have defeated mid-tier orc tribes or have crushed large tribes of goblins. Tribes of this level are equal in might as a low-level human city-state. These groups are renowned for searching mid-tier ruins of human empires from my era. That runic knight over there if he was lucky and found some great allies could enter the lowest level of this of the Crisis rank at rating 5, but could go no higher. 

The next ranking is disaster rating if my knowledge is up to date, it has only 100 groups within. They handle large scale tribes of trolls and orcs who banded together to invade the great kingdoms. Those of this rank also explore the more dangerous ruins from the older eras, such as demigod ranked dungeons. 

Now the title this young lad is at is the calamity ranking. I don’t know their rating, but there are 5 ratings in this rank, with over half the groups being below rating 3. Adventurers in the calamity ranking are either at or above the grand magus level of strength. They mostly take extravagant quests like fighting wyverns or finding low-level ancient relics from the high human empires era that survived the great dragon's raid. 

Finally, at the top is the World Ending rank, but there are currently no groups in this era. Back in my era, a few appeared killing the orc king and collapsing the rising orc empire. But in this current era, no quests exist at that level, so no one has risen to that honor. Perhaps conquering a dragon or destroying one of the prominent sea tribes would be enough renown to move up. Or clearing a god ranked dungeon, if they exist.” 

Haruto slapped his head in exhaustion and complained, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph talk about filler. Did I really need to know about some crappy good Samaritans? Just start at the bronze rank if that’s the true beginning. Don’t tell me about the scrubs who aren’t even considered real adventurers.”  

William, who was listening to the rundown with half interest perked up as he heard Thomas had accidentally said back in his era. “Young noble seems to be confused, the era from which our relics come from are before even your great-great-grandfather was alive, let alone you. But he is right for the most part on the adventurer rankings. Are you two perhaps aspiring adventures? All the better to take my offer and learn a thing or two.” reoffering the same deal, a big smile came onto William’s face.