Every MMO Ever

"The guild! Haha, of course!"

Grey laughed to himself. The guild would obviously have everything he needed to accept quests! He got up from the ground and dusted himself off, before walking straight into the shop while whistling out of tune. Pushing open the doors, Grey took in the sight around him. A huge tavern-like area, with tables, chairs, beer and people all around. Drinking and laughing. It looked like there were a couple of players there as well! He continued up to the bar where a girl stood, cleaning off a glass.

Grey just stood there taking in the sight. This girl was ridiculously pretty!

'Now this is what the game needed more of, heh!' Grey chuckled to himself. As soon as he sat on the bar stool though, his face quickly stiffened up. The girl he was looking at previously, stared at him with an ice-cold gaze. Grey's legs began shaking so much he thought he was about to fall off. A *ding* could be heard in his ear, and a message appeared in front of him.

[You have been intimidated! You are stunned for 10 seconds.]

'Holy shit I'm going to die!?'

Grey began freaking out so much he almost pissed himself. What did this lady want and why was she so horrifyingly scary?! He turned his head in an almost mechanical way towards the lady again, and saw that she was now making her way towards him. She was still cleaning the glass, but in Grey's eyes it looked like she was cleaning almost a weapon ready to use.

'Please, log out!'

[You cannot log out in the middle of combat!]

'Screw you game.!'

Grey began crying tears. Is this truly how it would end? Finally, after what felt like hours, the lady arrived in front of him. Before he could plead or anything, she spoke first.

"No weapons are allowed inside the tavern."

"NOO PLEASE DON'T KILL ME- wait what?"

The lady stared daggers at him. Grey looked on his shoulder and saw the brand new iron sword he got from Uncle Gorm. He then looked around the room and noticed that not a single person had their weapons out.

Grey quietly nodded before storing away the sword in his inventory. He then asked, "So, where do I get quests here?"

The lady visibly retracted her icy gaze, and although she still looked angry, she answered his question honestly.

"To get quests from here you have to apply to become an adventurer."

'Aw hell yeah, this is progress!'

Grey fistpumped.

"So, how do I apply?"

*Ding!

[Apply as an adventurer?

Warning! If you apply as an adventurer, you cannot apply to any other jobs such as guards or thieves before leaving your current affiliation. Leaving penalty: Hostility with that affiliation.]

"So basically, if I apply as an adventurer and leave, I'll become hostile with all adventurers? Jeez, that's kind of unreasonable don't you think?"

The lady almost looked offended before she replied, "We adventurers are proud of our affiliation. Leaving us is akin to treason!". Her cheeks almost puffed up with pride. Grey facepalmed shortly before looking back at the blue screen.

'If I apply as an adventurer, I won't be able to join any other affiliation? Maybe I should check out the others before I decide?'

"Hey, desk lady, what other affiliations are there?"

"I have a name you know."

"Not like I know it.."

"My name is Sophia. Now as for your other question, I'm afraid that I don't know the other affiliations. Not that I need to, because they're all garbage, hmph!"

Grey shook his head.

'Looks like I won't be able to get any information from her. Maybe if her brain was as big as her-'

Before his thought was finished, her eyes stared at Grey as though she was trying to dig into his skull and pry out his thoughts. Grey warily looked back at her, and she quickly said,

"I felt that you were thinking inappropriate thoughts!"

She glared at him for a little while before she sighed and looked away. Grey sweatdropped before going back to thinking.

'Being an adventurer huh? It sounds pretty bad-ass, but then again if it turns out to be terrible I can't leave? I'm not sure if it's the smartest decision…'

He shook his head. Grey looked at the blue screen still floating in front of him before he made a decision.

*Ding!

[You have applied to be an adventurer!

Your current affiliation is: Iron Adventurer

All members of the guild have a good impression of you! You will be able to get favors granted easier.

The quest board in the guild is now accessible! Accept quests or post quests on the board!

The adventurer guild trading channels are now accessible! Purchase specific items previously unavailable from the guild itself.

Guilds have ranking systems to determine your rewards. Your current payroll is: 10 copper coins a day. Climb up the rankings to get a higher pay. Work hard young man, for the glory of the guild!]

A new screen popped up in front of Grey. He was finally in a guild. 'Interesting. Looks like the benefits of being in a guild are very useful!'. Looking up at Sophia, he asked,

"What are the rankings of being an adventurer?"

"So you decided to join us? That's great!"

Suddenly the ice-cold stare that met him in the start, faded like it never existed. Of course she still wasn't smiling but Grey didn't feel threatened, so that's an improvement.

"The rankings of our guild are as following:

Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond and of course the famous Platinum adventurers. You won't need to think about that realm, however, you're never reaching it."

Sophia said the last part with a bit of irony, but was disappointed when she saw that Grey had no particular reaction. Rolling her eyes, she continued,

"Iron adventurers are newbies just like you. Their main jobs are usually to carry the baggage of higher tiered adventurers or do gathering missions, because there simply aren't any iron killing quests. Bronze is a gray zone, some bronze adventurers are strategic but not strong enough to carry out their plans, and some are simply useless."

She took a breath and grabbed a glass of water. Downing it in an instant, she sighed before continuing,

"Silver is where it gets real. Silver tiered adventurers are highly respected, not because of their overwhelming strength, but because of their status. While silver adventurers aren't the strongest the guild offers, they are the most prominent. Platinum adventurers can't be everywhere at once y'know?

Most adventurers stay at this level, and actually around ⅓ of all members in the guild are silver. It's a real shame they can't continue on from that point, but they can only blame their lacking strength."

"Or maybe the requirements to be a gold adventurer are simply too high?"

"Maybe, but I would much rather have a high requirement and fewer adventurers. Quality over quantity."

Grey thought about it and it did make sense. If the bar was set lower, that wouldn't mean that the gold adventurers would be of more use. It would just be the same silver adventurers but gold instead.

"Gold adventurers are usually leaders of the guilds in towns. By the way, this town is so remote, so our leader is a silver adventurer. That doesn't mean you can afford to disrespect him, however.

Anyway, gold adventurers are strong but kind of in a gray area. The people don't depend on them as much as the silver adventurers because of their lacking numbers, but they aren't strong enough to deal with disasters that diamond adventurers deal with. Being a gold adventurer is a chore, so most people don't go to that level unless they believe they are capable of becoming a diamond adventurer.

Diamond adventurers are the most useful ones. They are real heroes, the type of people written about in story books. Even now, I believe we only have about 300 of them in the entire kingdom! With so few of them, you would think they wouldn't be able to deal with a lot at the same time, right? Wrong! Diamond adventurers are quick, efficient and deadly.

They are the backbone of any kingdom. Even platinum adventurers pale in comparison to the worth of the kingdom, and that's because it's basically impossible for a kingdom to employ more than one platinum adventurer. Diamond adventurers are easier to manage.

Then finally, the platinum adventurers. I don't really need to tell you much about this level, as you won't need that information. Ever. I'll only say, there are 4 platinum adventurers in the kingdom. So don't piss any one of them off, or not even the king can save you."

Exhaling loudly, Sophia took another sip of water before waving her hand impatiently, signaling him to leave. Grey smiled and thanked her, before getting up and moving over to the quest board. 'These quests should help me to level up quickly!'

However, he was soon disappointed. 'Why are these quests so ordinary?'.

[Collect flowers from the forest.

Red tulips gathered: 0/3

Blue tulips gathered: 0/3

White tulips gathered: 0/3

Reward: 5 copper coins, 12 XP]

[Chop wood.

Wood gathered: 0/10

Reward: 6 copper coins, 9 XP]

[Find bird eggs.

Pigeon eggs gathered: 0/2

Reward: 12 copper coins, 6 XP]

"There's not even any fighting quests?"

Grey was stumped to see the quests. He just fought 3 goblins for some random NPC, but the quests in this guild are actually worse? 'Well, I guess there's nothing else to do but complete these quests… But which one to pick?"

He looked at the wall before picking up a paper. Walking over to the counter, he slammed the paper down on the table and said to Sophia,

"I would like to do this quest!"

Sophia looked over quickly, and without blinking said,

"Alright, the flower quest? I suspected as such, it's a very basic quest. Even someone like you should be able to complete it. Head to the forest north from here, the tulips are very abundant in that area."

Grey swore he could feel his heart being stabbed, but chose to silently bear it. He stepped out of the guild and headed towards the forest.