CH1: A New Arrival

A brown haired man trekked through a forest, carefully placing his footing as he descended down a hill into a clearing. He stood firmly up and stretched and took a deep breath. The crisp air of the evergreen woods and the silence only broken by the clinking of his armored arm. He looked around, and let out a sigh.

"Hopefully they haven't followed me this far through the mountains…" he said to himself. The stranger set off again to the east where the clearing looked as though it would run into a road. After a short time, amidst the rustling of trees in the wind and chirping of birds, there was a loud bustling in the bushes and heavy, beastly breathing. He looked around, then caught sight of what was making the noise. Crashing through the brush came a very large bear, charging while frothing at the mouth. It quickly got closer and swatted at the stranger. He effortlessly dodged to the side as the bear came careening to a stop. He drew his executioner greatsword from its scabbard on his back and looked the bear over. It was bleeding from multiple places and had at least two broken arrows lodged its side. It turned to face him and started to advance again, stumbling.

"Rabid, and wounded. I'll put you out of your misery." He said. From the same direction the bear came in, he heard the shout of a young man.

"It came through here! Don't let it get away!" it said. The stranger looked in the direction of the voice, then heard the whistle of an arrow cutting through the air; it came flying directly at him. Using his armored arm, he deflected the arrow with a look of irritation. It was obviously meant for the bear, but haplessly fired nonetheless. The bear lunged at the stranger, attempting to bite him. He sidestepped the attack, and using his momentum, stepped into a spinning downward hack directly into the bear's neck. There was a loud crack, and the bear dropped to the ground and remained motionless. The blade wasn't far enough to cleanly decapitate the beast, but well enough to snap the neck. He removed the blade from the bear's hide and said,

"Have your rest." Behind the stranger there was the sound of several pairs of footsteps coming through the brush. He looked over his shoulder to find a party of four young men and women, the boys wielding a sword and axe, the girls with a spear and bow. They looked relatively green, most of them only having a minor amount of leather armor and fewer pieces of metal plating. The boy with the sword pointed at the stranger and announced,

"Hey! You stole my kill!" The stranger swung his sword down to shake off the excess blood, and started to sheathe it on his back. Annoyed, he replied,

"What was I supposed to do? Let the bear kill me? It was suffering anyway." He turned his attention to the girl with the bow. "And you. You nearly shot me instead." Embarrassed, the girl said,

"S-Sorry. We didn't know you were here." The stranger rolled his eyes.

"Don't simply loose arrows if you can't see your target. You're not at war." There fell an awkward silence across the party. Then the boy with the axe spoke.

"Well, what do we do now? We didn't get the kill, and he's not part of the quest." He said. The stranger developed a confused expression.

"Quest? You mean someone actually sent you here to find this beast?" he asked.

"Yeah," the spear girl started, "We came here from the Adventurer's Guild. This is the last mission we needed to do to try and advance to Steel rank." The stranger said nothing and simply looked down at the bear for a few moments, then he looked back at the Adventurer's.

"I've no need for stealing from greenhorns. Do with it what you will. All I ask is that you point me towards this guild you mentioned." The boy with the axe pointed him in the direction they'd come charging in from and told him the path to take from there. The stranger waved and set off on his own towards the guild. After a while of walking, he found some semblance of civilization. He passed a run-down shack, which didn't look as though anyone was living there. Then there were fields, some agricultural, some with livestock, mostly cows. There walked a maroon-haired girl amongst them, stopping at each one for reasons unknown and disinteresting to the stranger.

He kept walking and the face of a large town came into view across a river. Crossing the bridge and entering its perimeter, he noticed it was bustling with life. Merchants, farmers, adventurers, and the like as far as he could see.

"Now to find the guild…" The stranger thought. He looked around for someone who might know where his destination was. He approached a pair of adventures, one amale knight with a goatee, the other a female lancer, both decked out in flashy, albeit impractical looking armor. They were speaking to each other when he came close then they paused.

"Excuse me," he said politely. They both started to turn to him. "Do you two know the way-" he started.

"Ugh!" they said in unison with disgusted looks. They quickly turned and walked away, leaving the stranger alone, confused and irritated.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance!" He said loudly at the two of them, arms held out to his sides. He dropped them, rolled his eyes, and shook his head. "I may not look the most fresh but it doesn't warrant that kind of disrespect." He said to himself. He looked around again, this time for some newer flesh. He spotted a team of three who couldn't have been more than 16 at the oldest.

"Excuse me," he said as he came upon them. Their chatting stopped as they each looked at this new stranger. Their eyes grew wide and the color fled their faces as they saw him. The stranger met each of their eyes with a puzzled expression. He cleared his throat and asked,

"Could you possibly direct me to the Adventurer's Guild?" One of the boys pointed down one of the roads and said, shakily,

"Y-Y-Yeah. It- It's that way, and take a left at the fountain. It's a four story building, y-you can't miss it…" The stranger looked down the road, then back at the three,

"Thank you." He said. He stepped away and followed the directions he was given. He could hear the teenagers let out a sigh of relief. "What is it about me that I'm suddenly so unlikeable? I may be scar riddled but I'm not simply the intimidating prescence." He thought. After turning at the fountain, the building meeting the description of the Adventurer's Guild came into view. There were tons of armored and robed individuals congregating around it, entering and exiting through its front door. The stranger did the same. On his path, he noticed a few supposedly more experienced individuals with confused expressions as they looked at him. He disregarded them and entered the building.

Inside the guild, it seemed like a warm and inviting place. There were people chatting about, sharing stories of past successes and battle tactics over drinks in the tavern. Some people were showing off new armor and weapons while others admired their new battle scars. The stranger looked around some more. Bookshelves were filled with texts of history, monster encyclopedias, and nearly every battle strategy guide one could hope for.

A few more moments of perusing led the stranger to the bounty board. There were listings for monsters drawing too close to livestock, daughter's being abducted, bandits, the lot. As he looked them over, he noticed something. Left and right, there seemed to be no shortage of bounties for goblins. The rewards seemed relatively low for the amount of work, causing the stranger to believe they were quite unpopular.

"Someone let the jackrabbits mate. I however am not the person to call…" he thought. Also neglecting the goblin quests, he pulled down a sheet for a chimera that had made its den along a trade route, effectively cutting off the path entirely. The chimera was substantially more dangerous than most of the other quests still available, but his experience would prove more than enough.

Someone else took down a sheet next to the stranger, close enough proximity to get his attention. The girl turned and walked towards the back of the room; the stranger watched, intrigued. The girl brought the page to a reception desk and handed it to another girl standing behind one of the segments. The stranger approached another length of the reception desk, paper in hand.

"Next please." Said the girl behind the desk with a sweetly smile. She was a blonde with strangely captivating golden eyes and fair skin. The stranger stepped forward and handed her the quest paper.

"I'd like to take this quest please." He said. The girl looked it over and said,

"This chimera has been a thorn in a lot of sides lately. I'm glad someone is willing to try and take it out." She looked back up from the page at the stranger, first cheerily, then troubled.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. She seemed to be intently focused on his collar region.

"Ummm, sorry, but, what rank are you?" she asked, somewhat embarrassed.

"Rank?" he said, confused.

"I don't think I've ever seen you in here before. Are you registered in another branch of the Guild?"

"No. I only learned of the guild today."

"Okay, umm, sorry, but, I can't let you accept this quest unless you're at least Ruby ranked." She said, red in the face. The stranger said nothing and simply opened his shoulder bag. He reached in and produced a very large piece of vertebrae and placed it on the counter. The girl looked at it, dumbfounded.

"This is the vertebra shackle of an ancient dragon. There is only one in its body and there is no way to remove it without killing the beast." He said. "Trust me when I say this is paltry compared to what I'm capable of doing." The girl blushed and looked back up at him, scratching the back of her head. She smiled and said,

"Aha… That is quite… impressive, but I still can't let you go. I don't doubt you can defeat the monster on your own, but it's just policy. If the board finds out that I let an unranked take a quest like this and for some reason they don't come back, that could be my job on the line." The stranger chuckled.

"Alright, fair enough. How does one become ranked then?" he asked. The girl slid him another piece of paper, a quill-pen, and a vial of ink.

"I just need you to fill out this form please." She said. He took the items and started writing. There came a set of heavier, more distinct footsteps from behind the stranger. They stopped next to him, and he looked over to his right. There, with an elbow leaning on the counter, stood an orange haired man in shining, high quality blue armor with a spear in the other hand. Disregarding the stranger, the spearman was focused on the receptionist girl. The stranger picked up on what was going on quickly and merely rolled his eyes and continues writing.

"Hey, I finished my quest. Did you miss me?" the spearman said. The receptionist girl giggled and said,

"Welcome back! Glad to see you're still in one piece. Was it too much trouble?" she asked.

"Naaaaaah. Maybe a scratch here and there, but nothing I couldn't handle." The spearman said with a smirk. He looked down at the stranger's registration in front of him. "What's this? You new in town?" he asked.

"Yes." The stranger responded in monotone, not stopping to even look in the spearman's direction. The spearman turned his back to the counter and leaned on both his elbows this time. Trying and failing to look humble, he said,

"You know, I like rookies. If I see you around, I can give you some tips. Maybe I'll take you under my wing on a couple quests." The stranger slowly looked at the spearman, and slowly leaning in, visibly annoyed, he said sarcastically.

"Yes, I will certainly, keep that in mind." He looked back at the girl and handed her the registration form. She looked it over, then back at the stranger.

"Well, it's filled out correctly. But, why did you leave your age blank?" she asked.

"It's complicated. Simply put, I just don't remember." He answered. The receptionist looked lost for words. She shook her head and looked back down at the paper.

"I suppose we can overlook that, it's not vitally important…. Everything looks to be in order." The girl reached under the counter and produced a white colored tag on a necklace. She offered it to the stranger, who accepted it and looked it over.

"What is this?" he asked.

"It's a Guild rank tag. It helps identify you should something happen to you for whatever reason. That one is porcelain, meaning you're the lowest rank… for now anyway." The receptionist said with a smile.

"Can you give me a brief description of the ranks?" he asked.

"There are ten ranks of adventurers, with porcelain being the lowest and platinum the highest. After achieving enough in a given rank, you can take a board to try and advance to the next rank. With each advancement, you can start taking on bigger and more dangerous quests. However, everyone has to start somewhere." The receptionist recited in one breath. The stranger looked the tag over. The words "Adventurer's Guild" were carved into one side. He put it into his pocket and looked back at the receptionist.

"If that's how it is, so it shall be." He said. "I guess I'll just start with something simpler." The receptionist shook her head, red faced.

"Uhhh-umm We can't let you do that yet! You'll need to wait until tomorrow. Y'know, registration processing and filing takes time." She said, suddenly more nervous. The stranger gave her a suspicious look. He was silent for a time, and then said,

"That seems off, but I've never been one to push papers, so I really can't dispute it. Very well... Is there any non-combative work I can do?"

"Yes, there's another bulletin next to the quest board." The receptionist said with a smile as she motioned. The stranger looked in its direction and was about to step off, but stopped himself. He looked back at the girl and asked,

"Before I go, what is the currency used here?"

"Gold, silver, copper, the usual. Why?"

"I have been many places, and you would not believe some of the things people use for money. One of them literally used souls as medium of trade." He shrugged his shoulder and approached the board, selected a worker request for building fences, and returned to the desk. The receptionist confirmed him and sent him on his way. He stopped just before the door and looked back over his shoulder.

"Feel free to keep the dragon bone for a souvenir. I've been meaning to free up some space." He said.

"Have a nice day!" the receptionist said as she waved. As soon as the stranger exited the front door of the guild, she slumped down in her chair and hung her head. The other receptionist girl sitting next to her and looked at her and said,

"You straight up lied to that guy about waiting. You aren't falling for him are you?" the blonde girl sat up.

"No, it's not that. I feel like we've just had some kind of prodigy come to the guild, and we can't afford to lose him. If monster armies keep showing up, we're going to need people like him. It would be a waste to keep him at such a low rank." She said. The brown haired girl grew confused.

"So what are you saying?"

"I want to talk to the administration to see if there's anything we can do to advance him faster. Surely someone who can take down a dragon on their own can make up for several high ranking adventurers. They're not all going to live forever." The brown haired girl roller her eyes and shook her head.

"You know what? You do you."