The Guild

While leaving the building, I heard the sound of horses galloping. People gathered on the streets. I could again feast my eyes upon the races from this world, sadly demons, dark elves, and high elves weren't present. They must live secluded, I assumed. Closer to the main street the number of people steadily grew, I had a hard time getting through them to see what exactly happened right now.

After standing on my toes, I could finally see what happened. Around 15 heavily armored knights were rushing through. The armor was like those from medieval times; they wore plate armor, a visor helm, a crossguard sword, some had bows on their backs. Surprising was that their attire did look quite used and damaged, probably they encountered some hard battle before coming here.

Some children were pointing at them and telling their friends something excitedly, but I could not hear them, the surrounding was quite loud. After the knights passed, the people were scattering quickly.

At last, I could move on to the guild building. After a quick look in the direction the knights left, I saw, that they moved inside the palace at the end of the road. From afar I could see, another wall separating the main buildings from the actual city. Maybe I could get a better look sometime in the future, but now with all that commotion, it would be a waste of time and too strenuous.

A few minutes after crossing the main road I could finally see the guild building, with a big sign atop the entrance it was apparent. The building had a Greek pantheon style with six columns in front. Quite a style breach, maybe there are other cultures from earth apart from the medieval one.

Adventurers entered and left the guild frequently. The variety was huge; some wore light leather armor, some plate armor there were even ones with simple clothing. Weapon-wise I could see all kind of swords and daggers, and one had a war scythe, halberds and polearms were present too. There were so many different weapon styles I had never seen before.

I entered the building; it was spacious, left and right were four counters with people lining up. In front were some wooden benches, where people could wait and chat. Behind them was a big board with papers, after walking nearer I assumed, that those were mission posts.

In the left corner was a door leading into another room, the insides still unknown to me. The right corner had stone stairs to another floor.

The guild building was the first one I encountered in this world which had decorations inside; on the wall were weapons, few paintings and some war trophies like beast heads.

After standing near the entrance for a long time, someone bumped into me.

"Kiddo, move your ass, don't stand there daydreaming."

I excused myself and went to a counter on the left side. While waiting for my turn, I inspected the female beastkin serving the adventurers in front of me. She was around 17 years old, had cat ears and a tail - Oh man, how I loved cat-girls in animes. Her clothing was a light green dress accentuating her jade-like eyes, not to mention her chest area. She was smiling the whole time, but it seemed like she was stressed out, maybe the customer in front was a pain in the ass to handle. He was a big muscled man, with most parts of his body unclothed, like a barbarian in some games I played. Complaining about something he grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer. The other staff next to her noticed it and watched her with sympathy. I watched them for a while and hoped that someone would help her, but nothing happened. Not able to endure anymore I patted the shoulder of the man.

"Hello, can you please stop to cause inconvenience to the beautiful lady, please? Other people are waiting for their turn."

- Dammit, just after speaking this I condemned myself, I was a mere boy without power and tried to intervene.

"Huh? What do you milksop want from me?" He turned around and inspected me annoyed. After stepping one step closer, I felt cold sweat running down my back.

"Nothing... But you can see, that this lady here got feared in fr..." Before ending my sentence, he sent me flying backward with his fist.

"Hmpf, want to play the savior... don't disturb other peoples business."

Damn, I was far too weak. But my futile effort in saving the girl bore fruits. The big man passed me and went outside with other similar clothed men while laughing loudly.

"Are you okay?" A sweet voice asked me after the man left. Searching for the source, I saw the girl walking to me with a complicated look on her face.

"Yeah, it was nothing."

"Why did you help me? He would have left anyway after finishing his business with the guild." She wanted to help me get up, but my pride did not allow this, so I got up on my own. My experience with a woman was nothing to mention, simply put I had none. I did not know how to talk to them to be precise. Pondering about it, I made up my mind and decided to play a role as I did on LARP events.

"I could not watch beauty in need." Slightly blushing, the girl turned around and went back to her counter.

It was my turn now, so I followed her back to the counter.

"How may I help you, my savior?" I could not help myself but smirk on her sarcastic exclamation.

"I want to become an adventurer." Trying to ignore her figure of speech.

"You don't look like one, more like a scholar, are you sure? To be an adventurer is dangerous." After my answer, her facial expression changed to a more compassionate one. This reminded me that I never checked my appearance since coming to this world. I must look weak to them.

"Yes, I need to get stronger and to do so, I decided to become an adventurer."

"Hmm, ok when you want it, it is not of my concern anyway. I need your identification paper to start the process. Please give it to me."

While handing out my identification paper, I saw her face darken after seen my stats.

"Shouhei... never heard such a name. You are just as weak as you look." Her words were not meant to be heard. After realizing, that she spoke out her thoughts, she halted in her movement watching me with an apologetic expression. Remembering that she was working right now, she wrote something on another paper and asked me to follow her. She led me to the door in the left corner I saw previously.

"To list you as an adventurer you need to take a test so that we can rank you." Seeing my asking expression, she explained further.

"We determine the strength of adventurers to rank them. Missions have a ranking system. You need to have a minimum rank for them, if you are below you can' t take them. But sadly I have to say, that with your stats, you will rank at the bottom and can't do missions except for some errands. The ranking goes from F to SS, with F being the lowest."

Hmm, it is similar to some novels I read. I knew that I am weak, but mentioning it made me sad.

She opened the door and led me further inside; it was a hallway with doors on each side, they had numbers on it, starting from one. She halted in front of door number seven.

"Please go inside. The examiner will rank you then. Good luck."

After pointing at the door, she left.

I entered the room; a blueish light illuminated the place, its source was not a candle but a glowing orb hovering in the center of the room. The room was small and only equipped with a table and two chairs, one in front and one behind it. Sitting behind the desk was a man in his forties, he had a big scar on his left cheek. He wore a white cloth shirt, a jacked and cloth pants. It gave off the feeling of a business suit.

"Papers please." He said while pointing at the chair in front of me. While sitting down and handing him the papers, I got previously I noticed a crystal orb standing on the table.

Reading the paper, he sighed. "Hmm, your stats are weak, are you sure you want to become an adventurer?"

Why is everyone asking me this?! I would not be here if I had other options.

Suppressing my anger about the continuous mentioning of my weakness I nodded. He observed me, making me feel nervous.

"When I'm so weak, what stats are strong?" I asked remembering the many questions I had since arriving in this world.

"You don't know? Did your parents not raise you properly?" I could faintly imagine question marks above his head.

"No, they died after I was born, and the man who raised me never told me."

I lied.

"Strange... but well... most people have a strength rating around 10, they are ordinary ones. Adventurers are far above them, C ranked ones are between 15 and 20, it's the same with endurance and agility. Intelligence depends on the people, and the common ones are around 5 to 10, only mages are capable of going higher. Luck is independent, and you can't raise it like the other ones through training. You will need to train hard when you want to become a successful adventurer."

Oh boy, even weaker than ordinary people? Why can't I be overpowered like the transmigrated people in the novels I read. My mood went down the river. Maybe I am destined to die early because of my weakness.

"Please place your hand on top of the orb so that I can check your talent and possible professions."

I did as he asked me, right after placing my hand above the orb an ominous green light emerged and I felt pain in my head. The pain grew stronger by the second until it was too much to endure.

I fainted, again.

After I woke up, I there was a dark green colored message in my field of vision.

[You have successfully unlocked the support system...]

[Unlocking shop... success]

[Unlocking experience point system... success]

[Unlocking training assistant... success]

[Your level increased...]

[Magic affinity rose...]

[Please choose your class...]

What the hell?! Finally, my luck is getting better, so my CPanel was only in its sleep mode before. But what happened? Why did it activate now?

"Are you ok?" The men asked me startled. Lying on the floor, I rubbed my head, stood up and sat down on the chair.

"Yeah, I happen to faint a lot recently."

"Boy, I don't know what happened but after this dark light emerged you fainted, and your stats on the paper changed. I never saw something like this before. Look for yourself."

He showed me the paper:

Intelligence 12

Strength 10

Endurance 10

Agility 10

Luck 10

Talent rating: B

Possible professions: Warlock, Mage

I held my breath... Yes! Now I am at least as strong as ordinary people, and my intelligence rose above 10. Can I become a mage or a warlock? But how?

"Boy, you are lucky only one in thousands has the aptitude for magic professions. Please come with me. I will take you to another staff member; she is responsible for people with a magic profession."

He led me through the main hall, to the stairs. Climbing them, I could feel the eyes of the people on my back. I shivered slightly.

"Luna, here is a boy with magic aptitude, I assume you want to handle him." The man pointed at me and talked to a lady in her twenties; she wore a blue gown with some silver ornaments. Her face was delicate, with a small nose, rosy lips, deep blue eyes and brown hair tied to a ponytail. She inspected me curiously.

"Thank you, Xerxes. I will take on." The man smiled at me and bid farewell.

"So, you have magic aptitude?" Luna asked me, still eyeing me with curiosity.

"It looks like I have," I answered shyly.

"Come with me, and we will finish your registration." She turned around and disappeared into another room. Entering the room, I was surprised. It was bright, and sunlight shone through the balcony I could see. It was more significant than the last one. The fantastic decoration told everyone that the one working here was someone special. Paintings of Landscapes on the wall, flowers on top of shelves, furniture made out of wood I never saw, and there was a sweet fragrance in the air. Luna did not go to the desk. She went to the couch and pointed at the one opposing her. After I took my seat, Luna asked me to show her the paper, which I still had in my hand. Only a quick look on it seemed to be enough for her because right after glancing at it she looked up again.

"So, you can become a mage or a warlock, your stats are nothing special, but your intelligence is higher than most people have. Do you know about the magic professions?"

"Just a little bit, I was told, that there are four classes. Mage, Warlock, Shaman, and Priest. Apart from this, I don't know anything."

"So you know nothing." She giggled.

"As you mentioned there are four classes, I will go into detail for mage and warlock and explain the other to briefly, because you can' become one of those. The Mage studies arcane arts, he can use mana and form a shield for defense. Conjure familiars from other realms, but those are either hard to summon or weak. They create arcane missiles and other spells to attack. The more powerful can summon portals to places they have visited before. A few have learned how to fly. A small group of mages is studying elemental arts. Those can evoke the elements like lightning and such, but they are a minority. To become a mage one needs to learn beneath a high mage, it is costly, but the guild can pay for it when you fulfill some conditions. A ranking system divides mages. The lowest ones are apprentices, then the mages, most mages are this rank. After mage comes advanced mage, high mage, great mage and finally archmage. Your luck won't be enough to meet a mage above high mage. Understood?"

"Yes, to learn more I need a teacher I assume?"

"Exactly. Now to Warlock... They are of a darker nature, and you won't find many of them. Most people fear them because they don't know enough about them, and in the past, some Warlocks killed innocent just for their entertainment. Curses and diseases are the central repertoires. Some can summon demonic entities, ghosts or other obscure creatures. It is known, that mightier ones can drain life from living beings and transfer it to themselves to prolong theirs. More is not known to the public, because Warlocks are secretive. To learn this path, you need to have the luck of finding one, but let me tell you I have not seen one in 10 years."

"Okay, so to become a warlock is out of the question?"

"No, but you need to find one first, we could help you on this, but it will take a while until you meet a suitable warlock. Okay, now to Priests, they are mainly focused on healing and curing diseases, some can empower people, more endurance, strength and so on. They learn in temples around the world. The last ones are Shamans. You would not find one in this part of the world; they live in the southern region are mostly orcs or half-orcs. You get it so far?"

"I think so."

"I know this is much to comprehend and the choice you make will determine your future life, so how about we meet tomorrow and talk about your further steps?" She gently smiled at me. I felt my head getting hot. I had to overthink my future goals, and most importantly I needed to check my upgraded CPanel. A little bit of time before deciding would be significant.

"Thank you very much, I appreciate your offer and would love to meet tomorrow after I could consider my options."

I bowed slightly after standing up and bid my farewell.

I needed to find a place to sleep, and had to grab something to eat as well. I went back to the inn I saw when I entered the city.

"Hey boy, want something to eat or a place to stay the night?" The lady serving the customers asked me right after I entered. Still pondering about what I learned today and what I needed to examine about my CPanel I barely noticed my surroundings and just asked for a room, I could eat something after a break. Paying 10 Copper Coins, I had 90 remaining. I still had to find a way to earn money.

I went to the chamber the lady offered and went straight to the bed, not to sleep but to rest and to examine my CPanel.