Chapter 119: So, I’ll Become an Adventurer
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The very next day off, Idiot and I left the Royal Academy and headed to the Adventurers Guild in the Royal Capital.
“Sorry for making you come along, Idiot.”
“Don’t worry about it, Hugh. I feel much more confident with you.”
After talking with Lily at the School Cafeteria, I went to Alissa-san to get permission for adventurer activities after school, and I happened to run into Idiot there.
Apparently, Idiot was also trying to get permission from the academy through Alissa-san to engage in adventurer activities, so we decided to register as adventurers together.
After about an hour of traveling by shared carriage from the academy, we arrived at the Royal Capital branch of the Adventurers Guild, located directly opposite the Royal Academy. At the top of the three-story brick building, the Adventurers Guild flag, featuring a sword and staff crossed against a shield, was hoisted.
The metallic sounds echoing from afar were probably the sounds of blacksmiths refining weapons in the surrounding smithies. This area is characterized by many tool shops for adventurers, stores that handle magical items, and, above all, taverns. It’s enveloped in a hustle and bustle completely different from the quiet and calm atmosphere around the Royal Academy.
The people passing by also have the appearance of quintessential adventurers. There are large men carrying greatswords and women in green robes holding staffs (since there’s no magic in this world, they probably beat monsters with the staffs), among many others.
Among them, I spotted several people wearing the Royal Academy uniform like us. I don’t recognize their faces, so they’re probably second or third-year seniors. It seems there are quite a few Royal Academy students engaged in adventurer activities, unbeknownst to me.
The interior of the Adventurers Guild building was much cleaner and quieter than I had imagined. It doesn’t seem to have a tavern attached. The sight of staff facing each other at desks behind the windows reminded me of the city hall from my previous life.
There was a line of about five people at the window with a sign that read “Registration Window.” For now, Idiot and I lined up at the end of the queue to wait our turn.
Looking towards the window, I saw the crystal magic tool used to assess Skills, which I had also seen during the entrance exam, placed on the counter. I’m glad I switched my Skill to Firekinesis beforehand. It would be safer to keep my Skill fixed to Firekinesis while working as an adventurer.
“Next, please.”
After waiting for a little over ten minutes, it was finally our turn. Prompted by Idiot, I went first to register as an adventurer.
“Please touch this crystal. Your name and Skill will appear inside the crystal, so please confirm.”
“Understood.”
The procedure is the same as the entrance exam. As prompted by the receptionist, I touched the crystal, and my name and the Skill name “Firekinesis” appeared. Good, it seems I can deceive them about the Brainwashing Skill without any problems.
“Hugh Pnosis-san. Your Skill is Firekinesis, correct? Since it’s an attack Skill, your adventurer rank will start from E. Do you need an explanation about the ranks?”
“Please.”
“Understood. Adventurer ranks are classified from G to A in ascending order, and then the highest rank is S. Ranks are increased by completing requests posted on the Quest Board by our Adventurers Guild. Each request has a difficulty level set, and the difficulty corresponds to the adventurer rank. Please note that you can only accept requests with a difficulty level one rank before or after your own adventurer rank. For example, an E-rank adventurer can only accept requests with F to D difficulty. Do you have any questions so far?”
“Um, so, what criteria determine the difficulty of a request?”
“It depends on the content of the request and the location. For example, even with gathering herbs, if it’s in the forest near the Royal Capital, it would be G, F, or E rank. If it’s gathering herbs that only grow inside dungeons, D to S ranks are assigned according to the difficulty of the dungeon. And monster subjugation inside dungeons is at least C rank or higher.”
“I see…”
In other words, with my E rank, I can’t suddenly dive into a dungeon and accept a request to subjugate monsters.
“Do you have any other questions?”
“No, not particularly at the moment.”
“Then, here you go. This is Hugh Pnosis-san’s Adventurer Tag. Please wear it around your neck so it’s visible while you’re working as an adventurer.”
What I received was a small metal plate colored blue. My name and Skill are engraved on the surface.
“The color of the tag changes as your rank increases, from blue to red, copper, silver, gold, and when you reach S rank, you’ll be provided with a special tag made of emerald. Please aim for it.”
“Ah, yes. I’ll do my best.”
If I were to fully utilize my Brainwashing Skill, it probably wouldn’t be difficult to climb to S rank, but doing something like that would be too conspicuous… I don’t intend to seriously engage in adventurer activities anyway, so it’s enough if I can buy Rouge a birthday present.
I hung the Adventurer Tag I received around my neck and left the window. Next is Idiot’s turn.
“Your name is Idiot… Hortness-san, correct?”
The receptionist hesitated after seeing the name that appeared on the crystal. Perhaps hearing that voice, a murmur arose among the surrounding adventurers. …It seems the Hortness family’s bad reputation has spread among the adventurers as well. It’s only natural since there are quite a few nobles.
Idiot didn’t seem particularly bothered by the surrounding commotion and gestured to the receptionist, who had bowed her head in apology, not to worry about it. After that, nothing else happened in particular, and he walked over to me with the same blue Adventurer Tag around his neck.
“Sorry for causing a commotion.”
“No, I’m fine, but… are you okay?”
“No need to worry, Hugh. There’s no end to it if I worry about every little thing.”
When we first met, Idiot during the entrance exam might have been irritated by the surrounding reactions. I still can’t gauge his inner feelings, but at least on the surface, he has enough composure to remain calm.
“More importantly, let’s go look at the Quest Board right away. You’re going to give Rouge a birthday present, aren’t you? Considering the period until the off-campus training, we have to accept requests with the highest possible rewards.”
“That’s right. I hope there are convenient requests…”
The off-campus training is approaching in two weeks. We only have two days, including today, to work as adventurers until then. Royal Academy students are only allowed to engage in adventurer activities on their days off, and Alissa-san warned me that violating this rule could result in expulsion in the worst case.
Considering the time to go buy a present, I want to earn as much as possible by the afternoon of next week’s day off. That way, I can increase the range of presents I can choose from.
While enduring the unpleasant attention of the adventurers present, we headed to see the requests posted on the Quest Board. If my Skill was Ninja right now, my enhanced hearing would have picked up the insults whether I wanted to or not.
Even without that, I could hear voices from somewhere deriding, “Is it a noble’s hobby?” The adventurer community has many nobles, but the majority are commoners. It seems there’s strong animosity towards nobles.
As Idiot said, there’s no end to it if I worry about every little thing. I pretended not to hear and looked at the requests posted on the Quest Board.
The requests posted, separated by rank, were surprisingly few.
Among the F to D rank requests we could accept, there wasn’t a single E rank request. The remaining F and D rank requests were mostly requests that seemed more like odd jobs than adventurer work, such as cleaning ditches or searching for lost cats, with low rewards for F rank. The D rank requests were all for remote locations that wouldn’t be finished in a day.
“I’ve heard rumors, but this is beyond…”
“Rumors?”
“Yes. There has been talk that the adventurer population in the Royal Capital has increased too much relative to the number of requests. There are few dungeons around the Royal Capital and it’s far from rare herb habitats. The number of requests posted per day is said to be about half that of local Adventurers Guilds. Nevertheless, the population of the Royal Capital is large. There are many who seriously aim to become adventurers, and many who do it as a side job, which is incomparable to the local areas.”
“Ah… I see. Because there aren’t enough requests, low-rank adventurers can’t easily accept requests, causing a traffic jam.”
“It seems so.”
Idiot looked around and sighed, seeing the adventurers watching us from a distance.
“They’re probably waiting for new requests to be posted.”
“The current requests seem troublesome.”
The F-rank requests take a lot of time but have low rewards, and the D-rank requests have decent rewards but require expeditions, so the time commitment is too long. E-rank requests are probably the most suitable. That’s why there was a scramble for them, and none were left.
“What do you want to do, Idiot? Should we just look for a lost cat for now? I think it’ll be over quickly.”
If I switch my Skill to 〈Chaser〉, it won’t take an hour. With this much, I can make the excuse that I found it by chance. As for cleaning the gutters, should I change my Skill to 〈Cleaner〉 or something? It sounds like it’ll turn into some kind of assassination Skill, though…
“I guess we have no choice.”
I don’t know when an E-rank request will be posted, and it’s a pain to get into unnecessary trouble fighting with other adventurers.
Idiot and I nodded to each other, and just as I was about to reach for the Quest Board to accept a lost cat search request, that’s when it happened.
“Um, if you don’t mind, would you like to take on the same request as us?”
The ones who called out to us were a boy and a girl, both about the same age as us.