Being a bartender involves being able to talk and being able to listen.
You shouldn’t be a bartender if you can’t at the very least pretend to be listening to some guy’s sob story.
A good bartender doubles as a therapist for those who can’t afford one.
And you get access to some useful rumors or see amusing and chaotic events unfold in front of your eyes.
Like, the time that some out-of-towners came into his bar not realizing his bar was one tailored for questors.
The thing was, they were some would-be criminals, complete with ominous black cloaks which covered their faces began talking about their nefarious plans to rob a caravan rolling through one of the roads close to the nearby town of Jakt.
Now, this would be bad enough, like seriously what was their Opsec?
But they said it in full view of a Questor fireteam. Said fireteam proceeded to punch their faces in with no mercy using his furniture as weapons.
It was a fun night, the Questor team had been willing to pay for the broken furniture and had helped move in the new ones.
Questor communities are very tightly knit after all. What with how they were pretty sidelined by the world. Both current and retired questors stuck together to help each other make ends meet.
Oh sure, everyone came together to create the Archaeodom Defense Guild but it wasn’t because it was necessary. Their own militaries could deal with the creatures running around, only some of the creatures were truly dangerous.
Most creatures that provided an actual threat were dealt with by the military.
What most of the governments wanted was instead a cheap force that could deal with things well enough that they don’t have to deploy a proper military team for. Hence why the Archaeodom Defense Guild was underfunded which was why questors had to buy their own equipment rather than being provided equipment.
Hell, most people don’t even reach the higher ranks. Most of them were created with the founders not even expecting people to reach them in the first place. It was just that there were a few people who put enough effort and luck into it that they reached those ranks.
Even then, most who reached that level eventually got folded into a country’s military.
The rest well…
“Another!”
The rest who reached the higher ranks were like the woman sitting despondently on his bartop.
Ceol gave the depressed woman a look, to which the woman more politely said, “Another, please.”
He looked the woman up and down and saw that she wasn’t drunk, just slightly tipsy. Ceol smiled and began pouring another shot of Beschuss Vodka.
She thanked him and resumed drowning herself in alcohol.
“Ceol,” A feminine voice said softly. He turned around to see his beautiful wife. Even after all these years of knowing each other, she didn’t look a day over twenty.
Her uniform was still the same as well, originally designed so that she would have as little problems from the potential customers as possible, despite their current clientele being quite respectful she still wore the same waitress uniform from long ago.
Ceol smiled cheerfully at the appearance of his wife, “Eclipse, what do you need?”
“One rum and cola, a whisky sour and an old fashioned. And they want an order of steak and chips, barbecue wings, and the barbecue sliders ” Eclipse listed out. Her purple eyes scanned the tipsy woman on the bartop. “And are you sure that you should be serving her alcohol?”
“M’fine,” The woman said, “I can function just fine. I’m just tired.”
“Very well,” Eclipse said, her messy ponytail swaying slightly as she tilted her head, “Just don’t overdo it.”
Ceol gave her a thumbs up, “I’ll tell Cameron.” Eclipse nodded in thanks, she began to tidy her purple hair a bit, her face still impassive.
Ceol wanted to change that, “And you’re still absolutely adorable when you’re being serious.”
An extremely visible blush spread across Eclipse’s face and her hands stopped moving.
It was so visible that even the questors on the far end of the bar noticed it and chuckled.
Eclipse shook her head, “Remind me why I married you again.”
“Because you love me~”
“Despite my best judgement and many others,” Eclipse sighed and began to walk off, “Just tell go Crimson the order.”
“Ah, you forgot something!” Ceol said and beckoned her back.
Raising an eyebrow, Eclipse walked back and leaned over the counter. Without a hint of hesitation, Ceol leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.
Hmm, red velvet. Probably from those pancakes from this morning.
Someone whistled, obviously a newcomer. But they were a questor which meant that they were already used to PDA. Most questor couples were like that.
Most of his clientele just smiled and kept doing what they were doing previously. Such a sight was quite common in the Shaken Soul, as was Eclipse’s reaction.
It had taken years of trust to have her agree to displays of affection in general and she still hadn’t gotten used to it, no matter if it was in private or in public she’d be very flustered.
“Y-you—“ Eclipse stammered, her blush intensified to the point where it almost seemed unnatural.
Ceol just continued smiling, “Me.”
Eclipsed whined cutely. “L-leave that for tonight…” Eclipse whispered just barely audible enough for Ceol to hear. Her eyes were looking at everything but him and her right hand tried to cover her blushing face.
Combined with her stutter, it was a one-two-hit combo on Ceol’s heart.
Ceol kissed her once more to try and hide his own slight blush, this one a bit more heated than before. Once they stopped for air, he gave a slight nod as the pair got back to their respective work.
He loved being a bartender, but he loved his wife more. She was just too adorable and he could live without his bar.
“Can I get another drink, please?”
“Ah, yeah. Of course.”
A Recruit’s Guide to Becoming a Questor, 5th Edition:
“Provided below is a list of all Questor ranks and their descriptions
Questor Ranks (Lowest to Highest):
Indium - 1
The entry-level rank where you begin your journey, very few people stay at this rank for long due to the low requirements for the next. You don’t really do anything besides small chores such as gathering herbs or moving some heavy furniture.
Cobalt - 2
The rank where you begin to actually do things instead of the small chores that Indiums get. You can begin combat missions against weak monsters and bandits.
Copper - 3
The rank where you get respect, some argue that this is the rank where you become a true questor. I disagree, even an Indium questor who has only fought once is a questor. But I digress, this rank is where you encounter the monsters a typical civilian would imagine us questors would fight. Monsters like goblins or a wild direwolf or two.
Iron - 4
The rank where people tend to plateau at. This rank is both respected and despised. Respected by non-questors and despised by questors. This is because Iron ranked questors are usually the ones that people see when something goes awry. However questors tend to despise this rank because most never get beyond this rank.
Silver - 5
The rank where you’re at a crossroad. Here you have two options. Either you retire, becoming a regular civilian or a guild official. Or you take the second option and continue moving forward, even if they know what might happen next. Very few retire at this stage, many often retire at earlier ranks.
Steel - 6
The rank where you’ve gotten attention. Both good and bad. Good because you’re probaby getting hundreds of requests and bad because you’re getting hundreds of requests. And not all of these requests are genuine, some are, but many simply want to use your newfound fame to their advantage. Welcome to the celebrity life.
Etherlite - 7
The rank where you’ve gotten attention from the countries. Expect recruitment attempts. A lot of recruitment attempts, some more forceful than others. Congratulations, you’ve become a city destroyer and now everyone knows it. Your social life is probably well and gone.
Vaporhil - 8
The rank where fear steps in. The few people who reach this point are feared, at this point you can take on a fully trained regiment. The people who reach this rank and the ranks following this number less than a hundred at the time of writing. And yet many are dead. Remember that while you are feared, you are not invincible. There’s always a bigger fish.
Platinum - 9
The rank that you will probably never see in your life. There’s less than twenty of these guys running around and even I don’t count among their number.
Uberitium - 10
The rank where you should never try to reach. Trust me, you’re better off not reaching this rank. Uberitum questors tend to disappear.“
-Epifanio Cross, Founding Member of the ADG
Rylian’s Questor Compendium:
“The average questor is around the Copper or Iron rank. Which is a lot considering that there are around a whole three corps worth of questors at any moment (roughly 135000 people), give or take one to two thousand, and around 63% are either at or below Iron. Then that’s like 85000 Iron or lower questors. However, unlike the Cobalts and Iridiums, most of these guys are both battle-hardened and eccentric.
This is the point where every questor begins to understand that life is too short to take it seriously. We have enough cynicism regarding life and death that it wraps around to having a fair amount of optimism. Why worry about dying when you’ve already experienced everything in your bucket list? It’s why most of us aren’t surprised when we see another questor doing something dumb and embarrassing themselves.
It’s their life, their very short life, and they should live it however they want to.”
-Rylian Quinn, Retired Questor
