...

The adventurer's guild hall was a building of 3 floors, one of the tallest around in this street, I assumed the first floor was for business while the second and third had the staff and manager's room. 'Maybe they have a library on the upper floors too, that'll be a valuable source for information, and less awkward than asking people directly...ugh I don't like crowds.'

I pushed open the double tavern-like doors of the guild's hall and was stunned for a moment, the Guild's hall interior looked exactly like how I saw it in the manga and anime I read and watched. The floor was divided into four sections:

The first section, the one to my right was just an open area with a bulletin board hanging on the eastern wall(relative to the door), to my direct right. The second section, to my left, was an area with wooden tables and chairs, occupied by most people, as it seems everyone is back from their quests at this hour of the day. Next to the tables and sticking to the western wall I saw a bar with a stool and an old man, in his 60's maybe, serving beer to the different kinds of people, mostly men it seemed, that was to my direct left. The third section was behind the bar, a pair of stairs extending to the second floor and taking the north-western corner of the floor. Lastly, and fourth, was what seemed like a clerk area taking the north-eastern section of the floor and outfitted with wooden and glass walls going up to meet the ceiling, with two clerks there, a female cat-woman and an old man. And that was my target.

-'I said I wanted a sexy bunny girl but what is...that?' I thought to myself as I looked at the easily most stunning beauty I've seen ever since coming to this world. A babe in her mid-20s with blond hair, cat ears, a round face with feline eyes that feels they want to eat whoever looks at them, and most importantly, for me at least, were her jugs resting on the desk in front of her...

-'damn, Charlie. I want to jump on her right now, you think they'll kill me if I kiss her at least?' I said as I stared a bit at her, maybe more than a bit but what I got was a questioning *squeak* from Charlie and then I heard a sweet teasing voice...

-"Hey handsome~ let big sister help you. tell her what you need~" Said the female clerk which made me aware of a fact:

-'Yeah...she strikes me for either an overconfident inexperienced woman...or a bitch, whichever it is I can't get information out of quickly. Guess I'll have to ask the Old man for help'

...

-"So, 'Big Sister', what does your little brother need to do?" I asked this Lucy, with an amused expression, as I got the essentials from Tom.

-'I still need to report my discovery about the goblins, doesn't mean I can't chit-chat for a bit tho. VI, gobs ETA?'

-ping-[Goblins ETA: 3hours 45 minutes]

-'Guess I wasted a bit of time, but still good. I'm not as worried as before tho as Oak does have stone walls with patrols'

I got interrupted out of my thoughts by Lucy's voice which seemed surprised by my reply but was quickly adjusted by her:

-"I...ah, I was saying, I can help you get your guild card, here." She said while placing a thick stone slab on the desk and continued:

"*plop* just place your hand on this stone slab, it will display your status. Place your hand and relax, Let Big sister take care of the rest~ okaayy?~" seems she managed to get back to her teasing tone. 'Can I place my hand on your cleavage? oni-san.'

-'ugh...no, cringe. what am I even thinking.'

-"hehe~ don't stare hard please."

-"oh? ah...sorry it was by reflex rather than on purpose" I lied through my teeth, it definitely was on purpose. I mean who would not stare. just put yourself in my place: an introvert that vented his...frustration using the internet, now is having this kind of beauty in front of him, how can I not stare? Hmm?

-"hehe~ don't worry, anyway here's the stone."

-"Sure" I placed my trustworthy right hand on the stone slab and my status appeared, just this time it was not augmented reality, but rather visible on the slab which lit up by magic.

-"Oh my..." murmured Lucy as she read my status.

 

I awkwardly scratched my head as I looked at Lucy reading my status a couple of times, eyes flickering.

-"aha...It's kinda embarrassing for someone to read your status, especially someone like you miss Lucy"

The embarrassing part not sharing my status, it was rather sharing it to someone like Lucy, just look what VI reported earlier:

-ping-[Inspection Complete: {LVL25  Lucy: female human-25y-168cm} ]

That was what VI reported after having ordered it to simplify the status and compress it into basic data, That way I get a basic idea of who I'm dealing with pretty quickly instead of having to look through a big status table that blocks my vision every time I use Inspect. On that note, since VI storage is basically so massive, I have ordered it to inspect those it can inspect unless they'll get alerted, and store all that information inside a folder. You never know when I'll need it.

Oh, by the way, I gained quite a few skill levels and a new one while traveling to town, as I kept using my mana semi-automatically, with VI's help, in any case, when I have time I can simply have VI use my mana to activate all my skills in a loop, that way I can level them up "automagically" pretty fast; Mana Touched seems to be what gives me the bonus mana, well at least it's what I guess God placed to mask his gifted bonus. Efficient Mana Manipulation and Water/Fire Manipulation got maxed both but I guess they did not advance since I kinda already have what seems to be their "next tier" like FireBall for example.

Anyway, seems like Lucy finally processed my status and said:

-"Wow, seems even your Skill list is tall too, but 190cm...life is really unfair!" she said with a cute pout that made me want to pat her so badly.

-"Ah, umm...don't worry, you're really cute." I said trying to sound as collected as I could.

-"hehe~ thanks! anyway, you know how rare it is for someone to be born with an 8/10 Magic Affinity, mages are uncommon among adventurers but an 8/10 affinity for magic is seen maybe once in every hundred thousand people..."

-"Oh, guess you're really lucky then" I tried to lighten the mood before she addressed my mana...

-"how humble, but yeah guess I am lucky, but what is that? hmm? a THOUSAND mana points. You need to chill, oh wait that's your name, sorry." she said mockingly, yet I could see the surprise and confusion in her eyes.

-"*clap*clap* very funny. But that's what my mentor always told me, that I have more mana than average-"

-"A lot more mana than average you mean" interrupted Lucy while rolling her eyes.

-"Yes, anyways. My mentor passed away some time ago and the only will he left me said: 'Chill and live a happy life son.'

-"Pfft-even your mentor..Oh-ah, sorry, I couldn't help it. but I'm sorry about your mentor's death." she said while laughing at the pun in the non-existent will left by my non-existent mentor. making excuses on the fly is a specialty of introverts. 'phew, death flag diffused, I guess'

-"*cough* anyway, everything's good, here's your guild card, it has all your basic non-private information and your guild rank. it will also stay marked in red until you pay the required fee for registration, do you need anything else?"

-'Nice, looks like an ID, I wonder what's it made of'

-"*squeak*"

-"wait a little bit more, I'll get you some grass once I'm done." I told Charlie who started nagging for some grass to chew on, I swear I do not know why he loves to eat grass and do nothing all day, sounds ironic, to be honest.'Shit, I spo-'

-"Hey, I don't really eat grass you know?" said Lucy after raising one of her eyebrows.

-"ah, no no I was not talking to you miss Lucy, It's just this guy here, for some reason he started following and I'm taking care of him, you see he only eats grass all day every day so it gets pretty annoying sometimes."I told her at the same time as I took Charlie who was lounging inside my hoodie at my back and placed him on the desk.

-"Owww~ how cute, does it have a name? and just call me Lucy, handsome.*wink*" said Lucy while smiling at me and caressing the back of Charlie.

-"Charlie's the name, Lucy".

-"*squeak?*"

-"NO she does NOT eat nor HAVE grass, stop pestering her, or I'll have you for dinner."

-"*squeak*!"

-"yes yes, now come." I picked my pet from the desk and onto my shoulder, again, while Lucy was giggling at our little skit.

-"hehe- handsome and funny~ so anything else you need?"

-"Yes actually, with all that out of the way I was told by the guards that any information regarding monsters should be reported to the guild"

-"You can also report it to the guard's barracks." said Lucy in a clearly annoyed tone,' sorry Mr.gate guards'

-"well yeah, so umm...while I was making my way to Oak, I spotted goblins and-"

-"they are not that dangerous, usually, if you're careful a party of F-ranks can take off a few of them"

-"*cough* as I was saying, I spotted around 200 goblins and they looked to me like they marching east, toward town to be more precise, and well I am no Goblin Slayer so I thought I'd report it to you"

-"wait WHAT?! 200 GOBLINS" cried Lucy out loud attracting the attention of a dozen at least.

-"umm calm down, yes that's what I saw, and they should reach town in about 3 to 4 hours, so Is reporting it to you enough? because it's weighing heavily on my shoulders"

-"*sigh* yea, don't worry. Your report has been received. now if you'll wait for me here for a couple of minutes, I need to relay this to the higher-ups" Said Lucy in a serious voice as she turned around and left abruptly.

-"sure..."

-"That's some serious intel you got there son; if it checks out the guild will reward you with the same amount for a C-rank scouting quest." said to me Tom in a somewhat low yet amused tone.

-"Wait really? C-rank? even tho I'm just an F-rank since I just registered and took no test" I asked him genuinely surprised.

-"Yes, scouting quests are given high priority when they are related to the safety of a Town, That's why most of the time they end up in a rank higher than what they should be. and it won't be bad on your record to have your first mission completed be a C-ranked one"

-"interesting, so..." I looked expectantly at Tom, at which he laughed and replied as if understanding what I meant.

-"They'll reward from anywhere around 3 to 5 silver coins, You've got some luck son." said Tom after showing me a proud smile, which really touched me, since he was practically the age of a father to me.

-'VI, Currency ratio?'

-ping-[Automatic analysis has been done for User convenience: Observed Human activity results have shown the following currency ratios: 1 gold coin > 10 silver coins > 100 copper coins]

-'So 10:1 exchange ratio from copper to silver and from silver to gold huh? Good, keep at it VI, maybe there is more than gold coins'

-"Thanks Tom, anyway, do you know where I can find books to browse? and maybe you can lead me to an inn, too. I am new in Town"

-"If you want books we have a library on the second floor here at the guild, you'd need to pay a copper coin and you can browse all day as long as you take proper care of the books. As for inns... I'd recommend three to you: First, you have the Rusted Inn, not the best services, meals are not free but it's cheap if you don't have the money. Second, you got the Bear'n Beer , medium class inn, they got rooms with bathtubs, meals included with the rent except for dinner, affordable prices for the quality. Lastly, you got Drunken Clouds, a high-class inn, spacious rooms, delicious food, they got an exclusive hot bath area too. some even they provide special services at night if you get what I mean *wink*wink*. never been there before tho, but the prices are sky-high, as mostly it's visited by nobles who think the higher the price, the better the service."

-'you definitely visited that last inn, you liar!'

-"*cough* thanks, guess I'll settle for the Bear one. and I'll come tomorrow for the library. one Last thing tho, I got some hamster fur with me and also an 'Emerald rabbit' corpse, drained of blood. you know where I can sell these?" I asked Tom as I remembered my wares, still hanging inside my poncho.

-"Oh" I could see the surprise in Tom's voice, Guess I hit a jackpot

-"Been so long since I last heard of an Emerald Rabbit, won't ask how you killed it, but they are pretty rare. you can sell materials directly to the guild's butcher, at the building next door. the guild takes a small cut but it's faster than roaming around looking for buyers." said Tom While gesturing towards a single door between the clerk's desk and the quests bulletin board.

-"Guess I'll head there once Lucy comes back."

To which Tom nodded for me and pointed his hand toward a bench, on which I sat and patiently waited.