Registration

The Adventurer's guild towered over the rest of the Edaine city in a domineering manner, its bricks made of glistening yellow sandstone which had been polished to perfection. Unlike the academy, it showed visible signs of the inevitable wear and tear that the passage of time brings, but that only added to its charm.

The bustling atmosphere to have engulfed the entrance stairs which were filled with an interesting variety of people and beastkin pouring in and out of the building, some looking rather shabby and beaten up and others with their noses held high in the air and donning various amours and protect gears.

Seeing this, Adrian couldn't help but be intimidated. He really wasn't used to crowds of people yet. He became conscious of Callan's warm grip around his hand and slid out of it. His fingers gripped onto the rim of his black hoodie and resided the urge to pull the hood over his head and shrink back into its comforts. Instead, he pulled the collar up over his mouth and nose and inhaled the scent of the fabric as his now-black eyes cautiously surveyed his surroundings.

Behind him, Adrian heard the sound of stifled laughter and quickly snapped around to meet a pair of amused grey eyes.

"Do you have that little trust in your disguise?" Callan asked staring at Adrian who had his face buried cutely into his hoodie. He remembered how when Adrian first entered the dorm, he had his hood pulled over half of his face, disguising his beautiful waves of blonde hair beneath it.

"I thought I told you earlier..." Adrian mumbled back in response, "I'm not good with other people..."

Callan racked his brains as he noticed the hesitation blossoming in Adrian's eyes which had returned to the guild entrance. He could vaguely recall that Adrian had spoken about something like that and concern replaced the laughter in his eyes.

"It's alright." He moved to pat the other boy's slender shoulder and whispered deeply in his exposed slightly pointed ear, "If they dare to lay a hand on you then they dare to lose that same hand."

His voice was deep and throaty, and despite the warmth of his breath, Adrian felt a shiver run down his spine.

"Callan, that's ticklish!" Adrian retreated a few steps away and glared at him accusingly as his hands cradled against his ear. Such vicious words were really uncalled for and his fins, although currently transformed to be like a human's ears, were pretty sensitive.

Callan watched the small figure dart away and the hood fell down to reveal pouting kissable lips. Too bad they were outside... he felt reluctant in his heart as after tasting sweetness once he couldn't wait to taste it again.

"What I meant was don't be scared." He moved towards Adrian, quickly grasped his hand, and began to pull him towards the guild entrance stairs. His grip was firm but gentle and Adrian had no choice but to follow behind him, muttering a few more words of hesitation.

After a while of darting through the crowd, he found it was better not to focus so much on the people around him and instead settled his gaze upon Callan's wide shoulders that rippled with hidden muscles under the fabric of his clothes and couldn't help but feel that seemed strong and reliable.

Sighing, Adrian gave up resisting and noticing this change, Callan slowed down and allowed him to catch up.

"We're here." He declared proudly as Adrian flashed him a smile of gratitude.

"Thank you." Letting go of his hand, Adrian began to ascend the stairs that had been trodden on by legendary people and commoners alike. He couldn't help but feel his heart pound excitedly in his chest and took several deep breaths to calm himself down.

Callan noticed his excitement but was very calm himself.

Due to his status as the crown prince and already predetermined future occupation, he didn't have the need to prove himself as other students would, nor did he need money or materials. In terms of training, it would be beneficial but wasn't a necessity. In fact, if it weren't for wanting to accompany Adrian here, there's no way he would've come himself as there simply wasn't a need.

Plus, he'd met the guild master a few times before and really didn't like the old geezer who likewise, wasn't immensely fond of human royalty.

The two of them walked inside and were directed by a tough-looking guard at the entrance into a queue for first-time registers, which thankfully didn't seem to be too long.

The inside of the adventurer's guild was impressive. Spread out, there were several different workstations manned by staff for different purposes, leading to the interior was an even larger hallway that was where adventurer's loot went to be processed, a lounge room, a taskroom, and several training fields behind the premises. Adrian gathered all this information by reading one of the maps pinned to the wall as him and Callan took their places in line.

There were around thirty people in front of them, so it would probably take around one hour.

"I'm going to take the registration test for C-grade. What about you?" Adrian turned around to ask Callan who was behind him. As the interior was very noisy, he had to lean in closer to the other boy for him to hear and as a result was staring directly into those murky grey eyes.

"Then I'll do the same." Callan declared.

It didn't really matter and he was confident in passing the test. He wasn't worried about Adrian either, as he must've had some ability in order to be able to get into S-class.

Adrian nodded. It wasn't unusual for adventurers to try and raise their rank when registering. After all, a lot of people were naturally stronger than the lowest F-grade, and wouldn't want to do tedious tasks in order to raise ranks manually. Hence a system was in place where first-time registers were allowed to take a test and rise to either C, D, or E-grade as well.

And in order to make good use of his Adventurer's guild registration, Adrian had to be at minimum C-grade. This was because C-grade missions were set outside of the city and in order to be able to use this as an excuse to leave the city and transform back into a mermaid, he needed to be one.

As for why Callan also wanted to be one, he didn't think too deeply into it. Maybe it was for the money?

The two waited in silence for a bit as the line slowly crawled forwards, and then Adrian got bored and turned back around to face Callan. There were so many fierce and powerful-looking adventurers wandering freely about that Adrian felt a bit out of place and wanted someone familiar to take his mind away from it.

Callan was more than happy to converse with him and they chatted about the history of the Adventurer's guild. Adrian had read a lot about it as it had piqued his interest, but even then, some of the off-handed comments that Callan made about it weren't things he had heard before, and found himself even more intrigued and in awe of the other's knowledge.

Callan found himself talking more than ever before under the observation of a pair of rounded black eyes, but strangely didn't dislike it.

"Wow, it's almost like you met those people before! You know so much about them!" Adrian couldn't help but comment. Hearing Callan slander the antics of certain famous adventurers like he had a personal vengeance against them, Adrian couldn't help chuckling and appreciated his art of storytelling.

Callan answered him back with just a sly smile.

He wondered what would happen if he revealed to Adrian that he had, in fact, met those people in person. The current, number one Adventurer, Grayton Sparks, was an old drinking buddy of his father's and was often seen stumbling around the palace drunk.

Callan's neck bristled as he remembered the humiliation that the damned man had caused him. As a young and budding prodigy, when he had met the man for the first time who was known as the kingdom's finest swordsman, he had been full of excitement and expectation. But instead, he had found an unscrupulous old uncle, whinging about woman troubles to the king. Of course, this was something that he would never reveal to Adrian.

After that day, he lost all faith in the adventurer's guild and grew disinterested.

Not long after the pair arrived at the receptionist's desk. The cashier was a young and smiling lady and after taking their registration and details, she handed them back an adventurer's sigil with their details. It was currently F-grade but would rise if they passed the test.

Adrian gazed at it in satisfaction, but his heart ached when he thought of the fee of one silver he had paid to register. What a truly extortive sum! He couldn't help but sigh.

A hundred copper coin were worth one silver coin and a thousand silver coins were worth one gold coin.

With around 5 copper one could buy a loaf of bread and with a hundred, it was probably possible to rent a small room for the night.

As of this moment, Adrian had a total of 8 silver coins and a small amount of copper ones remaining which meant that he had already used up more than one-tenth of his total.