Enter the Adventurer Guild

Leo heads east, towards a town that is around a hundred miles from the capital of Alexandria. He has learned from his research that even though the Adventurer Guild’s branch in the capital is the biggest in the continent, it’s also the most crowded. That means that lines would be too long, and applications would also take too long to be processed. Since he is new to adventuring and wants to take his time getting explanations, Leo opted to head for the town of Acordia instead. It is not too far distance wise, but the Adventurer Guild will be way more accessible compared to the capital.

After around a day and a half of traveling on horseback with breaks in between, Leo arrives at Acordia. The town is situated right by a small river and behind a mountain, providing a marvelous view to all travelers and locals alike. As Leo passes by the local checkpoint, walking on the well maintained gravel path into the town. Even though Acordia is called a town by many, in recent years, it has grown so much in size that it would be more accurate to call it a small city. Filled with numerous shops and vendors, along with friendly locals, it is certainly a good travel destination. Spending the first few hours in Acordia, Leo checks out the town. He didn’t let himself get carried away by the beauty of the place as he started searching for the location of the Adventuring Guild.

Standing in front of the building, Leo prepares himself as he opens the door and walks in. The lively atmosphere leaks to the outside right as Leo pulls the door open. The inside is quite spacious, quite opposite to the impression given by the outside. A few banners can be seen hanging off the walls, along with a big quest board right below them. There are many tables uniformly placed all around the first floor, along with adventurers scattered inside the building. At the center of the building, further to the back, three receptionists can be seen helping adventurers. Just like what Leo wanted, the line there isn't long as he queues up himself. After around a 15 minute wait, it was his turn and Leo wastes no chance to get a rundown of the system from the receptionist.

In the Adventure Guild’s system, there are 5 adventuring tiers with their own quests and perks. Those levels are: S, A, B, C and D. The most populous class is C, which contains 44% of adventurers. On the opposite side of the spectrum, class S has the least number of members, making up less than 1% of adventurers. The Adventurer Guild also keeps a list that gets updated every few months of the top 10 best adventurers. The higher one’s class, the better the rewards, with more areas that can be accessed and the harder the quests will be. Adventurers are allowed to form or join parties. Every class other than D is allowed to name their party. Keep in mind, a party’s rank and an adventurer’s rank can be different, with the party’s rank determined by its members.

Most classes have limitations to the amount of members the party can have, the higher your tier, the more members you can have in your party. With the exception of the S class which does not have an upper or lower member limit (1 to unlimited). Parties that are made up of more than 20 members can file paperwork to be called a guild (not to be mistaken with the Adventurer Guild itself). Guilds have their own unique banner as the number of guilds are very low. Guilds however, do hold major influences over regions in Ataxia with the top 5 guilds making many major decisions in the continent. Most important of all, class A and S members usually have blessings given by the gods with class A being minor blessings and S having a major blessing.

“Do you have any questions?”- The receptionist asks.

“That was a lot of exposition, I’m sure I missed a lot of the details.”-Leo admits.

“It is fine, most beginners get overwhelmed by the information. You will understand everything as you go by.”- The receptionist replied.

“Sorry I know it's really late to be asking, but what is your name?”- Leo nervously asks.

“My name is Sarah. It’s written there in the sign right in front of you.”- Sarah sarcastically replied.

“Oh crap! I was so focused that I didn’t even see it right there.”- Leo turned red from embarrassment.

“Ahahah, I’m just messing with you. People don’t notice a lot of the time.”- Sarah replies.

Before Leo leaves, Sarah also mentions information regarding guild advisors. Each party is recommended to have an advisor as their experience can greatly help the party. An advisor is not limited to one party, and one party can also have multiple advisors if desired. People taking on the advisor role are usually retired adventurers, sometimes there are those who can become advisors through schooling too. That’s why their advice can be very useful and help reduce the fatality rates of adventurers. With that explanation out of the way, Sarah helps Leo in doing the formality of registration. After all of the paperwork and background check, Leo was given a necklace with a metal tag on it, saying class C. A good start for Leo as he has the advantage of being a black cloak graduate of the Royal Magic Academy, allowing him to dodge having to start class D.

The adventure life Leo wanted so much has finally begun. As a class C mage, he had a good head start and was able to join a class C party named Midnight Hunters. It was a shaky start, but Leo managed to adjust and serve as a pretty important member of the group. Unfortunately, an argument broke out between him and the group leader over how the group should be run. Leo believes that they should do more solo party adventuring. The group leader believes that they should only work with other higher tier parties to gain rank faster. Unsatisfied with the group, Leo left. He continued hopping parties, and to his disappointment, found out that most parties in Acordia operated just like his first party. It makes sense as in a small town, it is a lot harder to make progress in your class as there are fewer quests to do. Smaller parties would get help from higher tier parties in order to gain ranks without putting their life at risk. Most of the time, the payment would be a portion of their salary given to the higher rank party. Leo understood that mindset, but what he truly sought was real adventures that he had many times played in video games and seen in anime. And so his search continues.

Six months after Leo first joined the Adventure Guild, the Demon Lord of Ataxia finally made his move after years of inactivity. After all this time, he has been slowly building his army and selecting his 9 apostles, who are now his most trusted generals. He, along with his army, launched a large-scale attack on the capital of Alexandria. Hearing the news, Leo rushed home in a panic as his house is quite close to the capital. Halfway from the capital, Leo meets his parents and many fugitives have heard the news and managed to escape before the battle begins. Convinced by his parents, Leo escorted them to a nearby town and stayed for the whole battle’s duration.

The battle lasted for around 5 days, completely ravaging the capital. The Imperial Army managed to fend off the Demon Lord army, with big losses on both sides. The battle was dubbed, “The Great Invasion” by the soldiers and the tales of heroics done by one man spread across the country. At the center of it all was Gawin Lanerd, a warrior from a royal family who received the Blessing of Might from the gods. He was given the title of “The Hero” after being a crucial factor in fending off the Demon Lord’s army and winning the battle. At the king’s request, the Adventurer Guild approves the formation of a new S class party, the so-called Seventh Hero’s Party. Formed from some of the best warriors the kingdom can find, the party consists of Gawin himself as a mighty warrior. Ori Grimfoot, a well known female adventurer from Dwarven land who serves as the party’s tank. Sylfie, an elf paladin that serves as the secondary tank and healer of the party. Nia and Amber Zauberei, sisters from a known mage family, also top graduates of the Royal Magic Academy. They joined to serve as primary and secondary damage for the party. These 5 form the hero’s party, with their goal of taking down the Demon Lord.

Within one month of formation, they had already managed to take down one of the Demon Lord’s apostles, proving their strength. Their reputation spread like wildfire all over the continent, bringing hope of the Demon Lord’s defeat.

“Wow, that's crazy! That loud mouthed tsundere, and the mysterious kuudere managed to become S class adventurers right off the bat!”- Leo thought to himself while reading the newspaper.

“I can’t be sitting here getting nowhere. I made a promise to be great too!”- Leo stood up triumphantly, grabbing his staff and walking off. Within a few steps, he runs back as he forgot to pay his breakfast bill. Finally paid his bill, Leo then coolly walks off again.