Dragons Guild

Velios had finally blown away the steam that had been building up since meeting that store owner. It could have been because he unconsciously knew that it was a monster which wasn't human or that he didn't like people without empathy. Velios wasn't in the mood to think about it, but he did anyway. It was as if he was trying to tell himself something without knowing what he is trying to say. Have I changed... since entering this game? What was I like before all of this? That's right, I... don't remember? What...? How do I not remember? I've only been gone from the real world for half a year. Real world? What is the real world? I... don't remember... Velios had to take a break. He didn't know what had suddenly gotten into him. He knew that he wasn't fond of the world, but he still remembered his life from the early age of four. For some reason, it had begun to happen more frequently, and it was always the same. Short moments in his memories had randomly begun fading away. It was beginning to become a lot worse.

Velios could not let it faze him. He had yet a problem to tackle, and he could not afford losing time while resting for something that wasn't even a necessary problem. What truly mattered to him was the present and future. His past was something he even wanted to forget. That's why he kept on pushing forward, why he was walking as he usually did and even smiled if anyone greeted him. He had something he still wanted to do, to explore the capital to find one of the buildings the guard had mentioned. If he were to find the "adventurers guild" that the guard had talked about, he would be able to fill requests or complete certain missions that he would normally do for free but for money this time. The dragons seemed well enough established to have a monetary system with all of the different terms of payments. Even if it wasn't money, it would still be a sort of currency that he would get as a reward.

Once he knew the place he would go to, the only thing left for him was to find the building he needed to look for. It all became apparent which building it was as soon as he got close. Young adults and veteran adventurers were becoming more frequent by the second as Velios approached the first big building he had spotted. Even after Velios had realized that it was, in fact, the adventurers guild the guards were talking about, it didn't even look close to one, at least not comparing the ones he had seen to this one. If he did compare them, it would be disrespectful towards the dragon's adventurers guild. It basically looked like a castle and fortress mixed into one with almost all of the exteriors being some sort of rock. It looked so grandiose, but when Velios was directly in front of it, he could definitely tell that it indeed was an adventurers guild. The amount of mana he could sense from individual dragons was many times more than the average dragon walking around in the city.

Surprisingly, no one batted an eye to him. It was packed beyond belief, and there was a line up to the reception with at least 10 people waiting. Velios tried to look around himself but couldn't see what was really in there. He could obviously use his ability to determine where everything was, but he was not at a level where he could accurately see what had been written on a piece of paper, yet. He still had a day's time, and there was no need to rush. Of course, he was still training. He was constantly straining his senses by using them as much as possible. He could accurately hear what any person around him was saying as long as Velios was specifically listening to them. He could see in excruciating detail, and his sixth sense ability made it possible to actively view what was happening hundreds of meters away. Velios was also using up a lot of his mana as a precaution so no one would find it suspicious that a random child nobody's ever seen before has much more mana than most superior dragons.

"Hi, what can I do for you today?" The lady in the reception looked young and had a bright look on her face despite having had to talk to people the whole day. "Uhh, I was just wondering if I can register here, somewhere." Velios had missed a crucial part with all of the time he had to prepare. He didn't even know basic knowledge about the society, and he didn't know if the dragons even had such a word. "Oh, a newbie, I see. I can tell from your mana amount that you are already quite strong. Have you had any fighting experience previously?" The young woman had an unusual amount of interest in Velios to the point where she was trying to initiate unnecessary small talk. Damn it! What should I do? Should I tell her the truth? Do dragons here normally have fighting experience or did she ask just because she could tell how much mana I have? Wait, how could she see me as strong when I am using most of it right now? What should I answer...? "Uhm, I don't really know what counts as fighting experience, but I have never been an adventurer before." The woman almost looked a little disappointed after hearing that. "Well, well. I guess everyone's gotta earn experience some time or another. Guess you will start at rank E since you're still abnormally strong for a beginner."

For some reason, Velios was found arguing with her. The number of people that stood in line waiting for their turn had only increased, and any attempt by the people waiting to step in and intervene were immediately shushed and thrown away. Velios sounded desperate while the woman sounded both angry and determined. "I have already told you! You can't do any fighting quests until you reach at least C-rank you-" "Well, you said yourself that I am powerful. Why can't I fight to gain experience if all I will do before I reach C-rank is to not fight? How does that make any sense?! Is there nothing I can do?" Velios was screaming back at her. "All of the combat-related are both hard and dangerous for beginners. You could end up losing your life!" The girl was forced to enforce rules. She had no other option, and she was also worried about him even if they had met just ten minutes ago. "Well, let me prove that I'm worthy of fighting! Give me a hard quest, I dare you! I think I saw some quest about strong and feared criminals, would you give me the rewards if I were to complete it?"

Velios had calmed down just a little bit. The anger he had built up through his first interaction with Mr. Shopowner was more than enough to make him irritated. The woman was still persistent. "You know what? I don't even care anymore! Just go off on your quest and die already if you want to fight so much!" Many of the adventurers there were shocked to see the receptionist so angry. Everyone there did not, thankfully for Velios, pay as much attention to him because of this. Similar things had happened before, so most of them sitting there were mostly confused to see her so worked up. "Hey, are you okay? You don't usually get this worked up." A young man had entered the reception from a door in the back. At this point, Velios was long gone.

"Don't talk to me..." The young woman had finally come to as if her real conscious was asleep before now. "Was there anything special about that boy?" The young man was casually walking around, putting stuff and restocking the shelves with supplies before completely stopping at her next sentence. "I... I wasn't able to notice it at first. Seeing so many different strong adventurers every day must have made its effect on me. I thought that I could trust my instincts but... all my gut is telling me right now, is that that boy is far from a dragon. I don't even know how that is possible, but. My instincts were telling me that the boy was not a dragon but something completely different. I couldn't tell more than that. His aura... was being awfully suppressed as if he was purposely trying to hide it. His mana heart... I couldn't even sense what color it was. Maybe that's why I was so keen to get rid of him?" The discussion was ultimately only between the two of them but multiple dragons around had heard what she said and were equally shocked.

"A-Are you telling me... there is a powerful being that is not a dragon within these barriers? Impossible! There is no way for any creature to get past those barriers, not even elite dragons can-" The girl started shouting in a sudden spike of panic. "I don't know! okay?" She was awfully gloomy all of a sudden as if her cheerful energy had been sucked dry. The young man started speaking yet again. "Now that I think about it, wasn't there an incident with the return of the 2nd battalion? They said that Bairon was attacking a "human" but was instead caught in an explosion that severely damaged him. There was no witness who saw who the culprit was or what it was that Bairon was attacking. No one believed that it was a human either." The young man kept on speaking quietly to himself yet the woman was perfectly able to hear it. "Wait, you think that that boy was a human? Impossible! With how sensitive you are to strong mana, couldn't you feel it, too? That boy was not a human, far too strong to be one. Either way, I just hope that he doesn't encounter them."