Chapter 14

 

“Good morning sir. My name is Isaac and this is Wraine. We just got into Mountain’s Toil yesterday and we were looking to register with the guild.”

 

“Alright boys, first time registering?” 

 

“Yes, also, Ingwulf the innkeep down the street told me to tell you to waive the registration fees for us and to go to him regarding them.”

 

“Ingwulf did? Okay, I’ll speak with him later. Before we begin, what do you know about the adventurers’ guild?”

 

“Not too much, just what I heard as a child from the other village children. Our main purpose for registering is to use the license for traveling and if possible we were thinking we could earn some travel funds by doing a few of the easier quests.”

 

“Okay, fair enough. Just like you’ve said, the majority of the guild’s members are ordinary folk who register with the guild solely for adventurer licenses. Although licenses won’t work in every town or city you’re trying to enter, especially during turbulent times like these, the majority still see an adventurer license as valid enough to work as traveling papers. Since you boys are registering for the first time, it would normally be a one time payment of 5 silver each, but since you have Ingwulf vouching for you, we can skip that part. Though keep in mind, once you have your licenses, there’ll be an annual recurring fee starting this Undecimber of 3 silver coins for each license. You can make your payment anytime at any officially registered adventurers’ guild and depending on how soon you make your payment, you might be eligible for a discount. However, if you fail to pay the upkeep on your licenses, they will expire and will stop working as your identification. From there, you’ll need to apply for your license again but it will cost 10 silver instead to reinstate a delinquent account.” What is this? Rather than this registration feeling like the first step of a brand new, exciting adventure, it feels like he’s selling us something. Is this really what being an adventurer feels like? Damn, the kids at the village would have been disappointed if they knew about this. “With that having been said, the actual process for registration is very simple. You’ve already given me your names and all I need left is your places of birth.” 

 

After telling the old man we’re both from Misanth, he takes out a thick ledger along with a feather and a small black jar and quickly jots down what I’m assuming is our information. Once he’s finished, he takes out two small pieces of paper and writes something on them as well. Finishing up those pieces of paper, he turns both of them around and makes us sign the back. He explains not being able to read or write is pretty commonplace in the guild, and it doesn’t matter what or how we sign the back. I just draw a line on the back of mine while Wraine takes his time to write his name down. Once we’re finished, we put the cards into our pockets and the old man leads us over to the wooden board we saw when we came in. 

 

“The guild divides its members into five ranks depending on their capability and how many quests they complete. Starting with the copper rank, which the both of you are officially starting today, it then goes to iron, gold, platinum, and finally diamond. Copper ranked requests cover a huge variety of tasks which can range from collecting herbs at the local forest to clearing out a wolf den. This is the rank the majority of our members stay in as they only need their licenses for traveling purposes like I’ve mentioned before. It’s also the rank that begins testing our more serious members on their ability to handle tasks by themselves. If you can complete 10 copper ranked quests with a majority of them involving combat, you can propose ranking up to iron to the guild. The iron rank is our second most populated rank. These are adventurers who’ve shown us they can handle themselves out in the field and have a certain level of competence in combat. Obviously, iron ranked requests are more difficult and can range from clearing out a goblin nest to escorting a merchant convoy. I won’t go into the other ranks because those are far ahead of where you are currently and you shouldn’t get ahead of yourselves. If you boys are serious at all about becoming adventurers, then you can start by accepting one of these copper ranked requests at the bottom of the board. Let me know what you’re interested in right now and I’ll help you find the most suitable request.” 

 

Wraine and I look at each other before looking back at the wooden board. I don’t know why we’re staring at the board of requests when neither of us can read but we still stare at it as if we’re in deep thought. “I’ve killed a goblin by myself before and I didn’t find it too hard. It was during the blood moon a few weeks ago as well. If you could find something for us that’s about that difficult.” 

 

“Did you manage to keep anything from your kill? If you bring proof of eliminating any monsters to the guild, we’ll pay you. However, the payment for proof is usually miniscule compared to bringing the whole carcass back. It might be useful for you to learn how to harvest your kills and which parts are valuable to bring back. A goblin isn’t worth that much unfortunately, though sometimes apothecaries and herbalists may want a goblin’s eyes and they’ll pay 8 copper coins for each eyeball. Keep in mind however, that’s only sometimes and their demand for them is normally minimal and you might find the eyeball rotting away while you try to find a buyer. It’s always best to find a request for certain parts first before accepting it as a quest and then finding the parts. Although this doesn’t quite hold true for incredibly valuable or useful parts, like draconid hides. Those are always in demand and the guild will be more than happy to purchase them from you for a reasonable price. Oh my, look at me running my mouth frivolously. Anyways, most adventurers don’t bother with the eyes but if you cut off any part of the goblin’s body that’s identifiable, most people tend to collect the left ear, you can hand it to us for 3 copper coins.” 

 

Hearing this, I glare at Wraine. If I still had that goblin arm with me right now, we’d be able to pay for another night at an inn without needing to do anything else today. He rolls his eyes in response. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to bring any part of the goblin back with me. But if there’s a request that involves killing goblins, I think we’ll be able to handle it.” 

 

“Alright, let’s have a look then.” The old man stops talking and quietly peruses the numerous sheets of paper stuck to the board. We really need to learn how to read and write. It’s not that I distrust the old man since he’s been nothing but helpful and courteous, but if someone really harbored bad intentions and sent us to our deaths, we’d just have to accept that we were unlucky. After about two minutes, the old man stops and pulls the sheet of paper off the board. “Here we are, a little far away for your first request but for a request involving combat, it’s a perfectly fine tradeoff. This is a request sent in by Lahrein, a village about two days worth of walking away from Mountain’s Toil. Forgive me, I forgot to ask. Are you boys alright with traveling two days for this request? Keep in mind it’s also on the other side of the Basteb Mountains on the main continent meaning you’ll need to travel through the Basteb tunnel first and then your destination will be two days away from there.”

 

Wraine responds in my stead, “If it’s just camping outside for two nights then we’ll be fine. We’ve done it for nearly a month coming south and another two nights won’t hurt. Could you tell us more about the request?”

 

“Lahrein is requesting the guild to send adventurers to clear out a goblin den near the village. Remember this exact wording for the future, “den.” A den describes an individual monster’s abode. There could be more, so you’ll have to keep cautious but generally there should only be one or two. If Lahrein reported a nest in its outskirts, that would mean a group of ten goblins or more and this request would turn into an iron ranked request. Lahrein could have reported incorrectly but it’ll be part of your job to investigate thoroughly and safely before completing the request. If it’s not a den but a nest instead, immediately back away and come back here to report your findings. If it’s a den like the request states, the both of you will need to carefully clear out the den and report the completion to Lahrein. They’ll send someone to check it out and once they’ve confirmed completion, they’ll stamp this piece of paper that you’ll bring back here to be paid 1 silver and 50 copper coins.” When I hear what we’ll be paid for completing this request, the large amount surprises me. 

 

“Wow, that’s a large sum. I thought you said a goblin ear is only worth 3 copper.”

 

“Yes, the goblin itself isn’t worth very much. Rather, its presence near the village is creating a threat that needs to be handled appropriately and you two, our guild’s two newest copper ranked adventurers, need to travel two days to reach your request’s location. 1 silver and 50 copper coins sounds fair for the time and effort you’ll be putting in. How about it, will you take this request?”

 

Looking at Wraine, he gives me a nod back and I answer, “Yes, we’ll take this request. One last question, how would you know the difference between Lahrein’s representative stamping this paper or someone else? I’m not saying we’d do this, but what if someone created  a fake paper request and submitted it as if they completed it?” 

 

“You have to know the guild has created a pretty comprehensive system since its establishment a century ago. You see this paper, I know you can’t read it but just believe me for now, this paper is official adventurers’ guild parchment and all of the guild’s staff are trained to know precisely how this paper looks, how it feels, how it smells, how it tastes, and even how it sounds when crumpled. No one will ever be able to counterfeit this paper because it needs a special technique to be made and that technique is securely kept in the guild’s headquarters in the heart of the Zenastra Empire. Even the ink all the guilds across the Alaulin continent use is specially made at our headquarters and we can easily spot the difference if another ink is used. This is also why the Lahrein stamp can’t be faked. When their representative came here to put in the request, I gave him a tiny stamp to bring back with him. He has to be careful with it as well since the stamp can only be used once with the amount of ink I put on it.”

 

“Wait, if every guild staff member can recognize this paper and the stamp that will go on it, does that mean we can submit the completed request at any adventurers’ guild?”

 

The old man sighs heavily and curses under his breath before he responds, “Yes, you can submit the stamped paper at any of the guild’s branches. But if you can, try to bring it back here since it’ll be easier on me. We keep the quest’s reward here and if the reward is collected here as well then we only need to finish filling in our ledger for the request. If you collect the reward in another town or city, they’ll send us paperwork asking to be reimbursed that we’ll have to fill out on top of filling out our own ledger and then we’ll need to fill out even more paperwork to balance out both guild branches’ request accounts. If that sounds like a lot of work and a giant headache, it is. But I can’t tell you not to submit the completed quest at another branch. I can only say that while I’m sure my coworkers in other towns and cities are competent in their work, they won’t be as experienced as me when it comes to helping you boys choose an appropriate request on your journey forward.”

 

“Alright, I think that settles it. We’ll take this request.”

 

“Good to hear. This copper ranked request to clear out a goblin den near the outskirts of Lahrein village is now officially your first copper ranked quest.” 

 

Quest? Request? Asking the old man about the difference in his wording, he explains the guild classifies requests as petitions from individuals or organizations for a particular action or item with a reward attached that has yet to be accepted by the guild’s licensed adventurers. The old man sure does love talking with people. But taking the empty guild hall into account, he might just be lonely. In other words, requests will stay as requests until someone accepts it and then it turns into a quest. I asked him why the guild used such a seemingly… arbitrary naming system and what the point of it was. He only said it had to do with the way they kept their account books and if I spent the time learning to read, write, and calculate their ledger, it would make sense. 

 

Unable to keep my curiosity to myself, I asked him what would happen if we died during this quest and lost the sheet of paper. The old man told me the sheet of paper pinned to the board is just a copy of the real sheet kept in their files. Whenever someone accepts a request and starts their quest, a staff member needs to take off the pinned sheet and hand it to the adventurer so that no two adventurers accept the same request and end up in conflict. It seems competition between adventurers is intense in bigger towns and cities but it’s supposedly incredibly tame here. The old man also said if he doesn’t hear from us after about a week or so, he’ll put up a guild request for someone to investigate where our quest was and to either confirm our deaths, and increase the new request’s danger level, or our failure. Guild requests have high priority in the guild and are apparently paid for out of the guild’s own funds due to, in his own words, the guild’s magnanimous and chivalrous nature. There’s something about the adventurers’ guild that slightly unnerves me for some reason. I first noticed it when the old man was talking about license fees and there was something he said that stuck out to me and has been dwelling in the back of my mind. I was going to ask about it but he kept talking and I ended up forgetting what I wanted to ask. I’m sure it’ll come back to me later. Once the old man finished explaining how we could get to Lahrein, he walked us to the door to see us off since the guild still doesn’t seem very busy. 

 

“I wish you boys good luck in your first quest. I hope you’ll come back soon to receive your reward.”

 

Wraine and I are standing next to the door saying our goodbyes when Wraine says, “You’ve been incredibly helpful to us sir. Would you mind telling us your name?”

 

“You’re good boys, willing to listen to this old man yap on like a fool for an hour without getting annoyed. You can call Ylvise, I’m just an old receptionist for the guild. Take care boys, and stay safe out there.” 

 

Waving the old man, I mean Ylvise, goodbye, we open the guild’s front door and step outside. The street became busy while we were inside the guild and when we stepped out, we saw people frantically running down the street towards the town gate. Wait, why are people running? Walking over to a nearby food vendor selling some kind of roasted meat skewered on a wooden stick, I have to swallow my saliva before I can speak properly. Just the smell alone is intoxicating and I haven’t eaten meat for nearly a month. Or is it more than a month at this point? Regardless, I ask him, “Why are people running down the street toward the gate?” 

 

The vendor doesn’t stop gazing towards the gate to look at me as if the longer he looks, the better he’ll be able to see. Without even turning his head, he says, “A noble and a bunch of peasant soldiers just arrived in town. Apparently they were decimated outside of Vilnau by a Ribierian ambush and some of those soldiers were recruited right from this town over a month ago. Can’t imagine what those parents are going through right now. Good thing the ole’ missus and I swore off having kids.” 

 

The last part of his sentence barely even registers with me as I start breathing heavily. With my eyes wide open, I look over to Wraine and he’s not doing any better. When our eyes lock, we both immediately look towards the Basteb tunnel right behind us and dash inside without looking back.