A single piece of thick brown paper and a pen.

“Please fill this up, Sir. You can disregard the questions you couldn’t answer. It’s fine to leave them blank.”

Before I filled it up, I made a request to the Informant.

“U-um, Ms. Maid. About my name, please call me Reiji.”

I said as politely as I can. She called Mira by her name so I assume it was okay for me too. And being called with honorifics bothers me.

“If you wish so, Reiji. Then, please call me Ava from now on too. A pleasure to be acquainted with you.”

“Yeah. Same here, Ava.”

At the moment I proceeded writing on the paper, I could feel a curious gaze behind me.

It was Mira and it’s quite a fiery one too. It felt like if I wrote something incorrectly, I would get a deduction.

Setting aside the hard time of writing, other than my parents' name and where I live, I had answered all of it easily such as my age. Even though I couldn’t even recollect what I ate on lunch or if I’ve ever eaten lunch.

Ava checked the paper and gave me the bracelet with the colorless gem.

“Please wear the Ranklet, Reiji.”

Upon wearing it on my left wrist, the gem suddenly glowed green.

Following that, Ava handed several Karda and the brown paper back to me.

Each Karda had words written in the middle: monster, map, food, and ability.

“At the rightmost bottom, please inscribe your thumb in each of it.”

The small box was just an ordinary-looking stamp pad all along.

As I print my thumb in each of them, I felt a bit of energy rising out of me.

After that, looking at my thumb, the ink was gone.

I thought it would troublesome if it remained but it seemed the ink was magical. No trace left off of it.

And so, we began with the monetary system.

I had a bit of understanding to it but just to add on, Ava still discussed it.

There are three types of coins. Above the table, Ava placed a copper coin, a silver coin, and a gold coin.

Naturally, the lowest would the copper, followed by silver, and the highest is gold.

The conversion factor is 100 copper coins = 1 silver coins; 100 silver coins = 1 gold coin.

But even though a hundred copper coins is equivalent to a piece of silver coin, they are not exactly direct.

The sole reason is that of the weight itself. An average person wouldn’t want to carry that much. And it would easily overload the Karda which I never understood why.

The structure of the Karda is based on the amount of oneself can carry in actuality. So if I can carry a dozen swords then the storage of my Karda is limited to that. That’s how it was but then if I think of balancing that dozen sword in my hand, is it… Yeah, time to move on.

Ava retrieved the coins and pointed at my left wrist—where the Ranklet is—and continued.

The ranking system of the adventurers.

Rank F being the lowest and Rank S being the highest.

S Rank = Gold                                                     D Rank = Yellow

A Rank = Silver                                                   E Rank = Orange

B Rank = Blue                                                     F Rank = Green

C Rank = Red

The ranking system determines the availability of an adventurer to hunt. The regions that can be accessed, the quest that can be taken, and such.

The use of Ranklet is more of a safety guideline rather than a power basis. The color will change at a different pace depending on the adventurer's self-competence.

She further added that the only way to get a higher rank is to train. Be it physical, magical, or even mental.

Experience is the best way to do it. Ava noted.

“Starting from the bottom.”

I had the green one. There are adventurers that instantly begin at E or D Rank. I’m quite jealous of them.

“It’s alright. It’s easy to climb up to C Rank. You can do it.”

Mira responded with words of encouragement.

I’m not totally bothered by it though. But Mira cheering me on is an absolute 'yes' on my dictionary.

I noticed that Mira or Ava if she ever had one, they didn’t have any Ranklet equipped.

“Is this detachable?”

I’m talking about the Ranklet.

“No. If you visualize it disappearing, it’ll automatically dematerialize. It’s the same concept of Materialization.”

I did what Ava told me. A flash of light covered the whole Ranklet and it was gone in just a matter of seconds.

Is it still here? No. I couldn’t feel it. I groped it. It’s not invisible too. It was entirely gone.

“Okay. Let’s now talk about the Karda.”

A Karda is made of pure manifestation of mana. It is indestructible and cannot be stolen by someone. It’s pointless to burn it or throw it as it’ll still return to the owner in one piece.

Just think of it as the air that we breathe in. That’s what the mana and the Karda are.

And the only way to return it is to surrender it here at the adventurer organization.

Map. Monster. Food. Ability.

The name itself is a given. There’s nothing much to specify.

I already had the Storage Karda so Ava only gave me four.

But a brief reminder from her. The Storage Karda is for items and potions whereas Food Karda is strictly for perishable goods such as bread and meals.

The only one who had an exception to the rule of carriage is the Monster Karda. It’s solely made for extracting monster corpses.

Heck, who would want to surrender these? Having a Karda is too convenient. The word burden shouldn’t exist anymore.

There are other types of Karda as well but these are the only necessary ones.

And again, Ava explained the process of Materialization and Dematerialization for formality.

For the former, I need to visualize the item I wanted to appear.

For the latter, I need to visualize the item I wanted to disappear.

Must have ownership to be able to do so. On how to determine it, Ava explained the law of mana.

I didn’t understand one bit of the intricacies and just pretended that I understood it.

“Can you please materialize your Ability Karda, Reiji? It’ll be the one we’re addressing next.”

There were three types of abilities: Active. Passive. Special.

Active Ability:                                                     Special Ability:

Quick Leap I                                                        Visual Perception

Passive Ability:

Speed Up I

Other than this, there’s a red horizontal line above the paper.

“You’re an impotent, Reiji.”

Huh? Did I just hear Mira trash-talked me? … No. That sounded wrong.

But worse comes to worst when I turned to Mira. She had a melancholic expression welling on her face.

Shit! Is it true that this also identifies the sexual ability of an adventurer? That’s bad. Really bad.

I can’t have an erection… And more importantly, does this lady even know what sexual intercourse is?”

While I was brooding over that, Ava chuckled. Am I being made fun of now?

“What Mira meant by impotent, Reiji is that you can’t use the external mana as a source of power. The red horizontal line stated it.”

“That means?”

“You cannot use excessive magic nor learn multiple abilities until your body adjusted to it. Nonetheless, you can still learn to a minimum degree. Everybody has internal mana within them and you’re no exception.”

So that’s what it was. Cannot use any magic huh? At least it’s not related to my junior. And learning multiple abilities wasn’t on my agenda, to begin with.

Good thing that Mira was talking about a different one I had in mind. Although, any bad news is still bad.

“But you have a special skill, Reiji. That’s really rare for a beginner to have.”

Mira was trying to cheer me up once more.

Now that I see it. Visual Perception?

… This must be the three lines earlier. I thought it was a hallucination but it was a special ability.

Going back to the discussion, it pretty much sums up what the name was.

Active Ability – Are abilities that needed mana for activation.

Passive Ability – Are abilities that enhance the physicality of oneself. On how to determine it, no idea. Even Ava said that it was unexplainable.

Special Ability – Are abilities that can only be granted to a specific adventurer. It’s a matter of compatibility and some of it is only for that individual.

I do somewhat kind of get that. The special ability I had, Visual Perception, I don’t think I can teach it to anybody else even if I want to.

And finally, the mastery, or the letter beside the skill.

The “I” indicated the level of the ability. It can go up to “V”.

And how to upgrade it? That’s right! Training and also books too, by studying the theories or some. But that’s for magic spells only.

“That’s all the basics that I could teach you, Reiji. And now, may I take the paper that you’ve just filled up? I’ll be duplicating it to finalize the registration process. Succeeding that, we can proceed with the weapon invoking.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Like a professional, she took it with both hands.

That was a heavy load but Ava did a great job on explaining it. I understood it crystal clear.

“Please, excuse me for a bit, Mira, Reiji.”

Ava went away. The one currently replacing Ava in the booth was a pink-haired wolf demi-human maid.

What weapon should I have? I’m too excited to think!

“You have a Weapon Invoker, Reiji?”

As I just starting up my imagination, Mira asked me that.

“Yeah. Apparently, I had some in my Storage Karda. Is it that uncommon?”

“Yes, it’s quite a rare item and expensive too.”

“Is that so?”

I’d never thought that that item had such value.

With the word S-Class, I’m sure it wasn’t something a regular person should have.

I was clearing the table of my Karda when I got a glance at the large clock.

“Mira are you sure you want to stay here? You’ve been waiting for more than an hour now.”

She had to meet up with Aeri at 7:00 and I’m worried that we might take more time.

I’ll be creating my weapon in a ritual room so magic is involved there, I think. But I don’t know how long will it take for me to create that weapon.

“I’m okay, Reiji. Look at this, I can entertain myself with this.”

Mira presented the same book she had on her side like a prophet.

“So, what kind of book is that?”

She’s a bookish person. When I saw her reading, I thought of that. It suited her.

“It’s a children’s book.”

“…”

… Huh? A children’s book… Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm. Everyone has different preferences. No matter how old you are Mira, it’s fine.

While I was having a thought crisis, Ava came back with a Karda. It had the word “Adventurer” written in the middle and a thumbprint on the rightmost bottom.

“With this, your registration is already complete. The Adventurer Karda is used for guild recruitment or as an identification paper.”

Putting aside my Adventurer Karda, Ava gestured her hand towards the direction of the stairs.

“Shall we head to the ritual room, Reiji?”

“Yes.”

Ava led me as I am two steps behind her. Mira waved her hand and resumed reading her children’s book.

Ava’s steps were silent and graceful. Not a single footstep can be heard.

We stopped on the first door we came across. It was a normal double door.

Once Ava opened the door, the inside was dimmed. It lacked light even the corridor is much brighter.

However, due to the drawn magic circle on the floor and four crystal-like pillars at the corner of the room, it looked mystical.

Advancing further, each of the four crystal-like pillars is connected to the magic circle by two parallel lines.

“Please materialize your S-Class Weapon Invoker, Reiji.”

As per Ava’s instruction, I took out my Storage Karda.

A rainbow-colored chunk of ore appeared from the light.

It’s average in size. It fits my palm. For the weight, it’s featherlike.

This is the Weapon Invoker? These piles of rocks?

I’m having doubts that this can transform into a large weapon. However, there's magic. And what does magic do? Magic.

I looked at Ava so that I could ask how to turn this into a weapon but her sight was totally glued on the Weapon Invoker.

She wasn’t even blinking.

I teased her by swinging the Weapon Invoker a bit.

She caught onto it and came back to reality.

“S-sorry. I’d never actually seen an S-Class Weapon Invoker before.”

They had a ritual room but this is her first time seeing an S-Class Weapon Invoker. Confirmed. It’s ultra-rare.

“Here, want to take a look?”

“C-can I?”

“Yeah.”

A magic circle manifested in her right eye and examined every nook and cranny of it.

She’s staring at it like a child that had discovered a treasure chest and is waiting for it to be unlocked.

So, she likes these—! “A-Ava, you’re drooling, you’re drooling.”

“W-wah! E-eh! U-uh! Sorry!”

After she wiped the saliva off using a handkerchief, she made several agitated bows saying sorry.

She couldn’t look straight and was blushing as she gave me the Weapon Invoker.

“It’s fine. It’s fine. Sometimes things like that happen.”

It’s quite appealing. Her out-of-character personality that is.

“P-please don’t tell anyone, okay?”

She still couldn’t face me.

“Yes, I won’t”

“Promise?”

Why did I feel like that was a big responsibility? Well, whatever. I need to be sincere otherwise Ava won’t believe me.

I raised my hand.

“I promise.”

Our age wasn’t that different so I’m glad that Ava somehow had that trait within her.

“Ahem. Then please place the Weapon Invoker on the magic circle, Reiji.”

I laid it. At that moment, the magic circle started to glow. The two parallel lines followed and made their path to the four pillars.

Now all of them are glowing. Of all the stuff that I’ve seen, this is the most magical there is.

“Now, Reiji. I’ll go outside and wait for you to finish. Please close your eyes securely before thinking of the weapons you want to choose from. The summoning light can literally blind you.”

When I heard the creak of the door shut, I began to picture various weapons that I could think of.

Weapon, weapon, weapons. What will I strive for?

If I go for the swords, there are too many variations.

Daggers? Short Swords? Long Swords? Or maybe Great Swords?

The choice of spears and bows are there too. How about axes and hammers? Given the framework of my build, I don’t think it’s plausible. Perhaps wands and staffs? No, I’m impotent. I can’t.

Shit! Hearing that word hits me hard.

Damn! I can’t choose!

Huh?

Just as I was having a difficult time choosing, a silhouette appeared in my darkened vision.

It’s a figure made of twinkling lights doing some fascinating moves.

It uses its hands and feet with great coordination. This is martial arts, right?

At the minimum, it was entertaining to watch. But I’m noticing something,

It’s coming toward me. And now, I could discern that figure. It’s a woman.

Who is she? And as I think of this, she’s still reducing the distance between us.

Hey! Hey! You’re just a figment made by me, right? Punch!

I was hit imaginatively and blinding lights poured all over my darkened vision.

I heeded Ava’s warning. Never open the eyes.

when the lights had settled down, I opened my eyes. It was really bright to the point that the adjustment of my sight took longer than I had initially thought.

A gauntlet…?

In exchange for the Weapon Invoker, that was the weapon in the magic circle.

Oy! This is the worst possible one I could’ve created.

Why? That woman! It’s her fault! Whoever you are, you’ll pay!

Sigh. Now I had no choice but to accept this.

I wore the left gauntlet. The perfect size. It’s light and comfortable even though it had metals infused on it.

It came from a Weapon Invoker but I don’t see what’s special about it.

It covered only half part of my fingers. The color was a simple shade of black and silver. The logo was pretty cool though. It was a circle and in the middle was a vertical line going outward.

This is certainly a minimalistic approach. Though having the S-Class, I thought it would be classier and shinier and all of that.

“Ava, I’m finished!”

Ava slowly crept inside. She was focused on none other than my gauntlet. I know this is going to happen which is why I haven’t put on the right one.

“Here.”

I tried giving her that but she brushed her head aside. She even pouted a little.

She’s probably still embarrassed from the early incident.

Well, I guess she’s not taking it so I wore it.

But when I was about to, I caught her staring once again.

I forward it. She sidewards. We were back and forth with that for I couldn’t count how many times.

Until she finally gave in and examined it.

At least she kept her composure throughout. She would look at me from time-to-time to check up on my expression.

When all is said and done, I wore it and we went downstairs.

I found Mira still reading the children’s book with full concentration.

The lights are on. That means the night will eventually come.

“Mira?”

I interrupted her concentration by talking in a manner of whispering.

She became aware after a few blinks and closes her book.

“Are you already done acquiring your weapon, Reiji?”

I showed her my hand. It had the gauntlet on.

Mira was genuinely happy for just me having it. Clapping and smiling.

“Regarding the information that the adventurer organization can relay to you, Reiji. It might take up to two weeks.”

Oh yeah… I’d totally forgotten about that. I also forgot one more thing.

But before that, I nodded to her reminder.

“How much is the payment for the service fee, Ava?”

While I was about to reach out for my Storage Karda, Ava shook her head.

“Ah, no. Payment is not needed for our service.”

“Eh? But the hours you’ve spent teaching and the how about the registration fee? All of it is free?”

“Yes. As long as it’s not a personal request or purchasing a quest. Furthermore, it is our prime duty to provide you the prerequisites you need as an adventurer, Reiji.”

What? That sounded really unfair. No. It was total injustice to overwork and receive no remunerations.

“Well, in that case, I’ll just have to repay you in some way. For now, I’ll say thank you.”

“I’m looking forward to it then.”

Ava blanketed her mouth with her hand and softly chuckled.

Her attitude towards me quickly developed from a formal Informant into a friend. Is what I think.

We exited the adventurer organization.

Ava bowed as a sign of farewell.

“Goodbye.”

And I became an adventurer.