“What happened back there? I didn’t expect you to go light a torch underneath that kid.”

Kayden was currently on his way back to the Adventurer’s Guild, where he could hopefully finally heal himself with the potions he had bought. He didn’t forget to grab his potions before he left, though, his sudden departure meant that he missed the opportunity to receive the city lord’s wife’s healing.

After the mind blast from the therapist, he was beginning to grow lightheaded during the entire course of the session. Maybe that was why he decided to do something so out-of-character for him.

“I’m not really sure myself. I guess you could say that I felt a bit responsible,” Kayden said as he turned a corner. “You could say that it was my fault for leaving him in that state in the first place.”

“Huh. That was surprisingly nice of you. Gaia would be happy.”

Kayden shrugged. “I just don’t like owing people, so that was just me paying my dues. Also, I don’t even know who this ‘Gaia’ is.”

“That’s not the mentality that I would expect from a thief…”

Their conversation carried on as Kayden got closer to his destination. The therapist resided in the inner city, which was within the confines of the walls, while the Adventurer’s Guild lay outside. The trip would take quite a while, and Kayden didn’t want to take a carriage to save on fees. With nothing else to do, he decided to explore the other features of the System.

“System, you said before that you could display my info, right? How about my skills and abilities?”

“Can do!”

[Displaying user abilities]

 

“This would be your abilities or ‘passives’ that us Systems call it. It seems like you have two blessings excluding me, which is almost the same as that brat.”

“Almost?”

“Yea… He has a blessing that only gives him good looks. A waste of a blessing if you ask me.”

“Pfft—What’s up with that? Was he supposed to be ugly or something?”

“Ahaha… Leaving that matter aside, let’s check your abilities! Just press on the screen and it’ll display more detailed info.”

“You seem strangely excited about this. Didn’t you already appraise me completely?”

“That’s not the case, I can’t use my appraisal ability on you until I am permitted to do so. So I’m as clueless as any outsider about you.”

“Huh, that’s nice. Wouldn’t want all my secrets to be known.” Kayden reached out a hand to press on the screen, carefully so as to not accidentally touch someone again.

 

“Transformation magic? I didn’t know I could do that.”

“Really? Then it’s probably because the selection of spells from the blessing is too high a tier for you to use.”

Kayden thought back to when he began learning how to use Illusion magic. The spells came naturally to him, and it required training to use them more effectively. Spells were given tiers based on how powerful or complicated they are, and the people who decides the tiers are some powerful mages in the Western Continent.

This meant that there was no such thing as ‘I can’t cast this spell as it’s too high tier’ but rather ‘I need to use my magic in a way that some random people can call it a high tier’.

To give an example, Kayden turning himself invisible is considered a tier 1 spell. If Kayden trains hard enough, he could potentially turn an entire army invisible, which would then give that spell a higher tier. He was still turning things invisible, just the scale and usage method was different.

He was sure this was how it worked, which meant that the System was wrong.

“I don’t think that’s the issue here. It’s likely that I simply have no idea how to do it. I’ll do some experiments later to see if I can figure it out.”

“Alright then. Let’s check your other blessing, the Blessings of Ymir! From where I’m from, Ymir’s the father of all frost giants, this blessing’s probably a good one.”

“Frost giants? Ahaha…” Kayden scratched his head sheepishly. “It’s probably why I’m so tall, like the blessing that made that kid handsome. Can’t expect much from a D grade after all.”

“Well, you won’t know until you check it out! Go on, press it!”

“Nah— Hey look, we’ve arrived!” Kayden pointed at the familiar building that was only a short distance away and picked up his pace.

The guildhall was very crowded like always, though there were noticeably fewer people around than a couple of days before. Without wasting any time, Kayden turned himself invisible and sprinted to his room. Although his master had assured him that she had taken care of the issue, there might still be some people willing to cause trouble for him. Thus, he opted for the safe route.

Closing the door behind him, he immediately went to work. He sat on the floor and gingerly placed the five-silver crate beside him. Grabbing a potion from the crate, he popped off the stopper and began pouring it on the wounds of his right arm.

[User has recovered 18 health points!]

Kayden hissed as a stinging pain manifested on his skin, causing even the scars to fade. He began doing the same for the rest of his body and eventually, not a trace of his injuries was left behind.

He looked at his stat page to gauge how many potions he needed and was glad to have only needed four. The whole crate had cost him five silver, after all.

 

“Aren’t you going to heal up completely? There’re still enough potions left to do so.”

“Nope. I’ll be off to the new dungeon soon, so it’s best to use it sparingly. Saves me the trip and money to get more potions,” Kayden stood up and threw the empty water bottles into the bin located at the corner of his room. “Speaking of the new dungeon, I think it’s time I look for some party members.”

“Are you sure? You’re pretty infamous after that incident. People might not wish for a ticking bomb to join their party.”

“What do you mean ‘Ticking bomb’? Everyone wants some of this A-ranked disciple action! This will be as easy as pie!”

Three simple things make up every Adventurer’s Guild branch. Adventurers, quest boards, and staff members. If any of these three are missing, it would no longer be called an Adventurer’s Guild, but simply a mercenary group.

First on this list are adventurers. While the definition of the word itself is a person who goes on adventures, over the course of centuries, the meaning shifted significantly to describe people who have officially registered with the Adventurer’s Guild. One does not simply call themselves an adventurer and expect people to believe them, and so an Adventurer’s card is distributed.

It served as a proof of identity for others or the guild themselves. In case you were wondering, Kayden keeps his hidden behind his belt.

Quest boards are pretty self-explanatory. They are large wooden boards where quests are posted. If an adventurer wants to pick up a quest, they must first go through with the staff members and obtain their approval. If anybody wishes to post a quest onto the quest board, they must also first go through the staff members.

From this, one can expect heavy traffic around the quest boards and service counters, and heavy traffic means easy advertising, which is exactly what our party of four here is taking advantage of right now.

“Party of four! One B-rank and three C-ranks! Looking for a rouge that can check and disarm traps!”

A stout man with dark green hair that rested on his head like seaweed shouted into the tidal wave of a crowd. His voice was drowned out by the loud footsteps and incessant shouting from other adventurers. He sighed as he ran his hand through his hair,

“This is troublesome, so many adventurers but not one wishes to join us.”

Underneath a white hood was a petite, blond girl with bright, blue eyes, and she nervously tugged on the stout man’s sleeves, before whispering,

“Louis, m-maybe we should try scouting some other time?”

Louis cupped his ear and directed it at the girl. “What’s that? I can’t hear you!”

“I-I said, maybe we should go—”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY? IT’S KINDA LOUD HERE!”

The girl was about to repeat herself once more before a taller woman stood in front of her.

“CATHY SAID TO GO TAKE A SEAT! WE’VE BEEN STANDING HERE FOR HOURS AND MY LEGS ARE DYING!”

Louis dug his ears and gave a disgruntled look at the young woman who should be tried for shattering his eardrums. Her name was Alice, and she wore a large brown wizard hat that covered her bright, pink hair. Her red eyes peeked over a fastened, high collar that was attached to her brown cloak, which hid the bottom half of her face. Gripped tightly in her right hand was a metallic black staff with a red crystal on top.

“Look, it wasn’t my great idea to look for a rogue, but Mr. Rogues-are-needed-in-dungeons over here doesn’t agree with you.”

He looked over at the last member of the party. He was a tall, tan-skinned man with ashen white hair with a tall wooden bow strapped to his back. His face revealed no emotion as he replied. “Rogues are very important for dungeons. Unfortunately, Galio lacks adventurers in this field of expertise.”

Louis scratched his stubble. “You’re right. These Galians are blood-thirsty warriors constantly seeking a fight. No life skills whatsoever, unlike the great me! It’s no wonder we have to stand for so long.”

“I heard that!” Both ladies were from Galio, the Central Continent.

The man with the bow turned to the ladies. “You girls may go find somewhere to seat if you prefer. We realistically only need the party leader to invite someone to join our party. I just figured that two ladies would increase the odds of attracting members. However, a party mostly made out of C-ranks is still not very appealing to the majority of people.”

“That’s why you made us stand for so long?”

Louis smacked his chest. “Haha, don’t you worry! For I, sole B ranked adventurer and the leader of the party, will carry us all to victory—”

“Um. Hello? I heard that you’re recruiting a rogue? I would like to join the party, if possible.”

All four pairs of eyes were drawn to the figure that spoke. It was a man with brown hair and light-blue eyes, sporting a black cloak with leather armor underneath. Clipped to his belt were two potions, a satchel, and knives… Too many knives.

Overall, he definitely looked the part, however, there was one slight problem. Cathy was the first to speak up.

“Mister rogue? Are you sure you’re a rogue? You look a bit too… u-um… tall.”

Kayden rolled his eyes. He had just been rejected countless times by other parties, contrary to what he had said about how joining a party would be as easy as pie. The local parties either didn’t believe him, like what this party was doing or knew his notoriety from the accident from before. The System was right, nobody wanted a ticking bomb. While he felt bad for joining a clueless party with a target on his back, e decided to take a shot at one of the newly-formed foreign parties.

“Look, I know it’s hard to believe, but I’m really a rogue! I had been a rogue since I was twelve! I was smaller then! I can’t let my height define what jobs I can or cannot do!”

“Okay-okay. Calm down,” Louis looked over at the rest of the party. “So, how do you guys feel about Mr. I-am-a-6’3-tall-rogue? Ezriel?”

“It’s Ezekiel, not Ezriel,” Ezekiel scowled. “We can test his abilities on some simple traps that I can make. We’ll decide afterward.”

Panting, the woman with a large hat complained, “Whatever you guys choose to do, can we just hurry! I don’t wanna stand any longer~”

“You heard Miss. I-love-to-complain-so-much. Let’s go!” Said Louis, before squeezing his way through the crowd of Adventurers.

‘Hey, I wasn’t outright rejected this time! Surely nothing will go wrong…”