Signing Up

Let's see what this city has in store. Velios was casually walking around the streets of the city, looking around while analyzing absolutely everything. Shops, restaurants, merchants, and small stalls – the city was absolutely covered in all of them. The streets were crowded, most with layers upon layers of clothing, armor, and other equipment suited for monster hunting. Compared to Velios, who had a set of ripped clothing, no armor, no equipment, and not even a single bit of currency to his name. He looked more out of place than ever before, and that says something when Velios has been hanging around monsters for the last few months; even he felt out of place.

"Do you think he's okay?" "What happened to him?" "Are you seeing his clothing?" "He looks pretty weak." The people around him were trying to be quiet, but it was no arduous task to hear them with Velios' acute senses. It didn't really faze him because of how weak everybody else was.

"Wait, look! It's the knights!" "They've already returned from the dungeon?!" "That's the royal knight order for you!" A clear path had cleared in the middle of the way in response to their arrival. Everything was going smoothly, and praise rained down onto the knights. The knights were responding with warm smiles, waving to the people standing on the sides of the street, watching all of them in awe. The path that had been cleared was wide and was already multiple hundreds of meters long, proof of their fame and might. Still, one individual stood in the middle of the cleared path, completely alone and confused, wearing ripped clothes with a weak-looking build. Velios had no idea why everybody had disappeared to the sides, even as he noticed the knights walk towards him. He stood there completely confused, blocking their way, causing them to have to temporarily stop.

"Excuse me, but would you mind moving?" A calm, caring, and soft female voice had spoken, directed towards Velios. Velios could immediately tell that he was important, having had multiple experiences with the strongest always in the front, which she was. She was clad in fancy armor that protected only the important areas, leaving some parts of her body exposed to the warm air. She had a spear that towered over her strapped to her back. "Why?" Velios was still confused. He didn't know what to do but he saw no reason to move away, seeing as they could just walk around him. "Is it customary to move out of the way here? I just arrived in this city." Velios sounded way too casual, and everybody that was looking had a shocked expression. The weak and unimportant people never dared to speak to the knights in a friendly and casual manner, and even more so when it came to the knight captain.

"I asked kindly, don't make me repeat myse-" She stopped in the middle of her sentence, unsure of why she did so herself. "Captain, can't we just move him? Why did we even stop?" Another guy, a single row back, looked towards the guy in front of them, seeing him as nothing more than an average joe. But that is not why she had stopped in her sentence. A cold sweat broke out, and she didn't understand why. She could feel something, something weird, something different, but she couldn't pinpoint what it was. "Hello? You okay?" Velios had asked, but he got no response other than her looking at him, zoning out. "W-who are you?!" She had asked it, not having noticed what had happened. She was still in a state of shock and she didn't want to believe it, but she became scared. "Captain, who are you talking to? He already left a whole minute ago." The same guy had spoken again, making her finally snap out from her trance. She looked around to see that the mysterious man had disappeared, and when she asked, she got the response that he had just walked away.

She sure was weird. Did she really start zoning out in the middle of our conversation? She did look pretty strong compared to the rest; she even had mana after all. Not did I think that most people wouldn't actually have it. She could probably effectively use it in battle too, but she's not that strong compared to my servants. Well, I have also put them through the same grueling training that I have. Velios was walking atop the roofs of different buildings, jumping between them to see what the city had to offer. He looked down at his clothing, noticing that they made him stand out. I guess I gotta get some new clothes soon. Should I try to make money? Maybe I should just get someone to steal it or I can do it myself. Damn, I should have asked those knights for direction towards the nearest adventurers guild. I wonder if it's big. I mean, it must be big if it's the biggest city in the world. Let's just look for it; I'm pretty fast even without mana after all.

After only a few minutes, Velios stood before a building that clearly was the adventurers guild, since it was written everywhere around it. The building itself was massive, many times more so than the library he was in in the dragon kingdom. It was made out of marble and had a different vibe surrounding it. As he continued standing still and looking at it, many adventurers alike were walking in and out of it, all of them in groups with all of their equipment. The amount of glances Velios got was absurd, but he didn't care. He felt a slight bit of excitement, seeing as this was his first time signing up for it. The idea of being able to take on difficult tasks, defeating powerful monsters while growing stronger and earning money was something he looked forward to as he began to walk inside.

As soon as Velios walked in, he caught everybody's attention and not in a good way. All of them were staring at him as if he were some stray dog or a lost child. Most people would think that he was homeless because of his appearance and no one bothered to go up and speak to him, which was an ordinary thing to do when new people arrived, since they all share the same goal. "What's someone like that doing here?" "He looks so weak." "Is he homeless or something?" Velios continued walking despite the unfriendly words from the other adventurers. As if his appearance wasn't enough, the place itself was both clean and big, making it look like he was even more out of place. "Oh, welcome to the Alexandria Adventurers Guild. How can I help you today?" The receptionist was another young girl, speaking calmly before she saw the man standing in front of him. Velios stood tall, and his stare was frightening, scaring her to the point where she tried to slightly back away from him.

"I'd like to sign up; is that possible?" Velios spoke to her, not having noticed that he was the reason she was trying to back away. Hearing Velios speak put the girl at ease, hearing that his voice sounded normal at least. "Oh, is that it? Have you not signed up at previous adventurer guilds?" She spoke with a confused tone, not believing that Velios hadn't signed up ever since the start of the game. But Velios nodded in response when she asked again, leaving her even more confused. Small amounts of laughter and giggles could be heard from the nearby adventurers. They knew that he looked weak, but he had never even signed up to an adventurers guild during all of his time in the game, making their image of him become even lower. "I just haven't had the time to properly sign up. Is there anything I need to do?" Velios continued speaking, unfazed by the reactions of the other adventurers present.

"Y-you just need to fill out these papers; that's all. You can read everything about the rules and such on them as well. Tell me when you're done or if you have any questions." She was confused as to how it was even humanly possible to not have signed up for an adventurers guild, but even more shocked that Velios remained unfazed from all of the reactions from the people behind him. "Thank you." Velios grabbed the paper she was holding and moved a bit to the side to properly fill the papers out, but there was a slight problem. I have no idea what I should answer with! Not only did the papers have questions with words that Velios didn't understand, since they were more commonly used by gamers only, or questions where he didn't know what to answer. Full name? Is it fine to just write "Velios" since that is my only name? Long range or short range? Are they talking about my way of combat? Is there an option to write both or should I just stick with one? And what about weapons? I can't even use them! Should I just write fists or should I write magic? Or will that attract attention...? It's too much to think about!

The receptionist looked at Velios with a hint of curiosity. She could clearly see him struggling, and she wasn't even able to complete a word before Velios rejected her help. Velios felt as if filling out that paper was one of the toughest things he had ever done, and he wasn't sure of what was going to happen. He didn't actually lie if you take away the fact that he decided to hide a few of his abilities. Velios handed her the papers, being completely silent when he did so. His expression had no clear emotion, and his face was unmoving. She was slightly scared when Velios looked her dead in the eye, but she didn't know why. She had to face multiple super strong and capable adventurers every day, many times more dangerous and powerful than herself. She tried to convince herself that it was because of his rough look, with his thick black hair covering a huge part of his face, leaving a shadow beneath.

She looked back up at Velios in shock after having read through all of the information. "D-did you lie...? Or is this information actually true...?" She wasn't sure of what she had just read. It was nothing like she had ever seen before. Crap! Did she figure out that I was purposefully hiding my abilities? I hope not... Velios looked into her eyes before speaking again, sounding a little bit less confident. "I-I would never lie about something like that? Pfft, so ridiculous." Velios wasn't good at hiding it. He couldn't lie for the life of him, especially while speaking to someone else. Even so, Velios had interpreted it as if she thought that he was hiding something while she thought that he may have lied just because of how utterly ridiculous it was. "I-I'll have to go speak with my boss! E-excuse me!" She grabbed the paper, accidentally crumbling the side of it before disappearing, running up a pair of stairs before swinging a door open, running in and closing it. Am I in trouble...?