Well, I can guess that his shy attitude acts as barrier against women.

“I can read and write.” I stood up as I said glaring at those guys.

I went to the reception desk to ask if I need to fill all of these fields as accurately, but I stopped mid-way, but not because the pompadour guy was trying to flirt with the receptionist. I thought it might be stupid to ask if I want to lie in here.

I went back to the gal and asked her instead, “I’m having trouble.” I straightforwardly agreed.
Her face lit up as if she had finally caught a prey and ready to feed on. I sure exaggerated but she did get excited when I asked for help.

“C’mon! Shoot at me. Whatever question you have, ask.” She said as she snorted with pride.

“Do I have to fill them all out correctly?” I asked hesitantly, as I imagined the look on their faces for asking such a stupid question.

All the three people sitting at the table looked dumbfounded. But the girl immediately realized it and answered.

“Yes, you have to fill them as closer to the truth you can. You don’t have to worry about your identity, the guild keeps it safe always. And your card will only have your adventure name on it. This is just to confirm your identity.” She folded her arm and closed her eyes as if she was doing huge favor telling me this, “Besides, they’ll find out if you lie anyways. So, no need to risk it.”

I understood her point and expressed gratitude then eventually standing at the corner of the desk to fill the form discreetly.

I swiftly filled the name field in my full name: Damian; Father name: Lughe; Age: 16; Place of birth: Dolofanos Varonia …

I signed in my name and took the form to the receptionist, preparing myself for any question she might have relating to my identity.

“So, you’ve filled out the form? Was there any problem?”

“Yes! No, there wasn’t any problem in filling out the form.”

“So, can I please see your ID please? I need it to verify the details.” She asked gently.

“Actually, I don’t have any valid ID. You see it all got burnt.

As I handed over the form to her, I noticed an acute shock on her face. But that was only for a second until she regained her composure and said, “I see you’ve left a lot of fields blank…. But what about Adventurer name? You need to have an adventure name or your real name will show up in the card. If you can’t think of one, shall I suggest you?” She said it with a smile and winked at me. And as soon as she did, I got the message.

“Ohkay! Give me the best you can.” I concurred to her naming me as I didn’t have anything particular on my mind.

She paused for a while, “Damianos. How does that sound? It means ‘Conquer’.” She asked confidently as if she had done a great work in thinking up an adventurer name.

I leaned in and whispered, “Didn’t you just add an -os to my name?”

“What? What’s that?” she acted as if she couldn’t hear me perfectly.

“Fine, whatever. I don’t care. Just go with Damianos.” I agreed to her suggestion without much thought as there was really no point in wasting time thinking up a fake name. Little did I know what misfortune this damned name would bring upon me.

So, are we done here?” I asked, wishing for this tedious process to end soon.

“Before that. Please put your hand over here.” She rolled her eyes and pointed her hands towards a transparent ball sitting on the desk.

“What’s this?” I asked, “Appraisal ball?” though I had no expectations of a back-country town to have it, I was curious to know what she was directing me to.

“It’s a Truth Orb. It sees the truth of the soul. Any crime you have committed will appear here as a black spot. The graver the sin, the darker the spot. And the recent it is, the bigger will it show. But don’t worry, if you’re already forgiven for your misdeed, it won’t have a blotch.”

I looked at her questionably as to why she was explaining  it in such fairytale way. Fortunately, she got the point and explained.

“Even lying is considered a sin. That means if you lied to me in the form, it will have a black dot in it.”

“Oh, okay!” I said hesitantly as I resolved myself to put my over the ball. What if I break it, by injecting mana into this?

I placed my left hand on the orb as I tried to induce a little bit mana into it. But to my surprise, it rejected it. I increased the amount of mana I was injecting in but there was no there was no reaction to the ball. I constantly increased the mana trying blast the orb from inside but it reflected it all.
The receptionist must’ve sensed it as she stood there in disbelief, eventually coming back to her senses. “Okay! Okay! It’s done. There was no reaction. You’re clean.”

I removed my hand from the ball and asked her if she was done.

“Wait here.” She pulled out a small object from under the desk and suddenly a light flash struck my face, almost blinding me. “Done!” She exclaimed as she was over with the application process.

I was about to ask her what she just did but I realized it the next second that it was the Magitech Camera that is used to capture photos and store it till print. I assumed it must’ve have been for the card, therefore I didn’t bother asking.

“Alright! Your sum is 1500 Ris. Since we don’t have any other applications, your card will be done before today evening. You can pick it up anytime after that.” She concluded.

1500 Ris? It was pretty large amount considering it was just an ID card but then I realized her favor. I readily agreed and handed her fifteen silver coins. I had taken a pretty hefty amount from the bandits, which they too must’ve stolen from somewhere else.

“So, can I sell the magic stones now?” I asked as I suddenly recalled my reason for coming to the guild.

“Sure, sir. For your ten small magic stones, you’ll get 20 Ris.” She opened her drawer, searching out twenty bronze coins to give to me, while I put my ten magic stones back to the table. But it didn’t end with that. I unleashed a fury of magic stones as they kept falling off the desk while I dropped in more and more, nearly emptying three quarters of my storage of magic stones.

“Here!” I gave her a pretty smile to assess the quantity and hand me the payment, while she stood there in absolute shock. “What about skeleton bones?”

“This-This many?” she said confoundedly, “Huh?” she came back to her senses and started hurriedly cleaning up the desk and the floor of magic stones.

“At what price do you buy skeleton bones?” I asked politely.

“One copper coin for one.”

“Hmmm, that’s fair.” I don’t think I’d be needing any of these in the future. Just as she cleaned the desk, I dropped the whole of undead skeleton bones I had stored since the dungeon. As the bones piled up, the receptionist expression went pale. The look on her face was no longer astonishing. “What about ghoul skin?” I asked her again.

“…” I waited but she didn’t answer. She just kept cleaning the desk again, putting the bones aside first.

“Do you buy ghoul skin too?” I waited till she was done with the desk; but after still not hearing an answer, I just dropped all of the ghoul skin I had in my bracelet on the desk, “Well, I’m sure you’ll give me a good deal for this.”

The receptionist was stunned again. I could see her lips moving constantly but I couldn’t hear a single sound from her mouth.

“I’ll drop by tomorrow.” As I turned around, I saw the whole room standing in awe after finally returning to their seats.

I turned to the receptionist again and asked as she stood there cleaning up the desk and floor. She looked at me, trembling, afraid that I’d drop another lot of material on her.

“Do you buy mana…. No, actually, nevermind.” I stopped; I didn’t want to sell my mana ores yet. I believed I could have a better use of it in the forthcoming future. So, instead I asked her I could sell her something else. “Ummm, do you buy artifacts?”

She soon came back to her original jolly mood as when I had first entered, “No. We don’t have anyone who can assess artifacts in this town.” She replied calmy. “I think you should try in the next city. They might have one there.” She suggested that I should go to the capital if I do not find any artifact master in the next city too.

It’s dumb to go to the capital just to get the artifacts assessed, but…. “Ok, thank you for advice.”

I moved on and went to the quest board to check for something, then eventually heading out. However, the party from before stopped me at the door.

The big guy slapped my back, “Hey! Where did you get all those stones from?”, he asked.

“Inheritance.” I smiled gently and white lied with a straight face. But none of them except the heart-hair seemed convinced.

The gal behind responded with an unpleased expression, “You don’t have to lie; if you didn’t wanna tell us, you should’ve just said so.”

“Anyway…” The muscle hunk took over the conversation, “Where are you heading off to now?”

“Why do you ask?” I asked as I opened the wooden door and exited the guild room. I presumed they were trying to make small talk to divert the topic so I disappeared from outside the guild, not wanting to indulge in meaningless conversation.