He felt a bit of nervousness as he traipsed up to the gate along with the other people looking to enter Yeon, but the line moved fast and soon it was Eli’s turn.
“Put your hand on the Scrying Pedestal. I will only be able to see your name, affiliations, and if you have any outstanding bounties.” The guard said lazily.
Beside the guard was a flat disc-like pedestal with an orb on top. Eli had watched people place their hands on the pedestal, and every time the orb would shine with a blue light. He wondered if the color would change when a criminal used it.
Feeling a little apprehensive, he placed his hand on the pedestal. And he immediately felt the following information enter his mind.
Name: Eli
HP - 50/50 MP - 50/50
Level: 1
Class: None
Affiliations: Kingdom of Lucretia (Citizen)
Bounty: None
Statistics:
STR - 5 END - 5
DEX - 5 AGI - 5
MAG - 5 WIS - 5
Skills:
- Basic One Hand Swordsmanship (Novice)
- Analysis (Mastered, Hidden)
- Otherworld Language Comprehension (Mastered, Hidden)
How remarkably… uniform, Eli thought as he looked at his stats. Is 5 the average?
“All clear. But I haven’t seen you around here before. Y’migrating?” The guard asked him, looking only somewhat interested.
Eli smiled. “Umm, yes. I’m from a village far away from here.”
The guard nodded knowingly. “Smart chap, the countryside’s no place for the young. If you want to make something of yourself then moving to Yeon is the best choice. Go on in.”
With a final wave, the guard let him into the town.
Eli passed through the gates and was immediately struck by awe. Yeon was a lively medieval town straight out of a picture book. The wood and stone buildings, streetside stalls selling all manner of knick knacks, and passing horse carriages were all so different from what he was used to. He noticed that some of the people walking around were armed young men and women dressed in a mishmash of battleworn equipment. Are those adventurers? So cool!
While gawking around like a genuine country bumpkin, Eli thought about his next step.
He could either look for an inn right away, or try his luck at the Adventurer’s Guild first.
It didn’t take long for him to decide on the latter. Instead of picking an inn randomly, he may as well ask for a recommendation from the guild.
...
The letter had said that he could find the guild in the center of town, so he began moving deeper into Yeon. Walking along the streets like this, he felt like just one more face in the crowd. But finding the guild was proving more difficult than expected; there were no signs to mark the streets, leave alone any pointing the way to his destination.
Well, no choice then. Let’s find someone nice looking and ask for directions. Preferably another adventurer.
He scanned the crowd, and soon saw a petite young lady with shoulder length white hair. She was dressed in form fitting leather armor, and a pair of identical short swords were strapped to her waist. The girl was munching on an apple lazily as she walked. Not really an eye catching appearance as far as people in this town go.
But the most distinctive feature about her was the pair of white rabbit ears sticking out of the top of her head in all their floppy glory. Eli felt the entire world meld into the background, leaving only this beautiful young woman standing at the center, a physical embodiment of his greatest dreams made manifest.
Before he knew it, Eli had unconsciously gravitated towards her.
“Um, excuse me!”
“Mm? What?”
The girl looked at him warily. Eli noticed that her hand was inching towards the swords on her waist, so his excitement at meeting his first beastman (beastwoman?) quickly cooled down. She’d probably gut him like a fish if he asked to touch her ears.
“I’d like to ask if you know the way to the Adventurer’s Guild, miss.” He said, putting on a friendly smile. “I’m new in town.”
The girl raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I figured as much.” She jerked a thumb down the street they were on. “Keep heading in this direction and take the third left. It’s the big building with the crossed swords banner, can’t miss it.”
“Alright, thank you!” He said happily. “My name is Eli by the way. Are you also an adventurer?”
“No, I use these swords for peeling carrots.” The rabbitkin answered dryly. But a smile tugged at her lips. “I’m Dianne, a C-Rank rogue. If you’re planning to sign up then you’d best hurry, registrations for today close in an hour.”
Rabbitkin and carrots… was that intentional? But he wasn’t dumb enough to ask that out loud. And he guessed that the last part of her sentence was both a friendly reminder and a request for him to make his leave.
So although it was disappointing, Eli decided to get a move on.
“Thanks, Dianne. Once I sign up, I hope to see you around!”
“Bye.” Dianne said, nodding.
...
She watched him rush away with an amused expression. I’ve met a lot of yokels and seen many different reactions from people unused to my ears, but never anything like that. Bastard looked like he wanted to fondle them.
Rolling her eyes in disbelief at the kind of weirdos they were letting into this town nowadays, the rabbitkin girl walked off while continuing to eat her apple.
