Chapter 14

“Here you go.”

Ava held the rectangular card out to Naro who took it with shaking hands, he eyed the strange card filled with bits of his information, there were three boxes, two small ones on the sides and a large one in the center. It showed his face in a box on the left side with a neutral expression, his name and where he had gotten the card was under the box. In the right box there was a large number, a very large blue ‘F’, that caused his brow to arch.

The card itself was light, barely the weight of a pen, he had to make sure not to lose it.

“Fill the card with your Mana.”

At Ava’s suggestion he did so and more information showed up in the center box, it was mainly just the words ‘Mage’ and what seemed to be his believed Rank…which was just ‘Mage’.

There was a blank spot above it that hadn’t been filled in yet.

“There you go, your guild card,” Ava said. “With that you can enter the forests, it’s also a way to identify you as an Adventurer, you’ll need to show it for any places where only adventurers can go…the rest is in the handbook. Oh and this pamphlet.”

Ava held a pamphlet out to Naro who took it, staring at the woman, dressed in leather armor, her black hair in a high ponytail, on the front giving a thumbs and a wink with the title ‘So you want to be an Adventurer’ on the cover.

“...May I ask a few questions?”

“Everything you need to know is in that pamphlet and handbook at the end of the desk.”

Ava looked up at Naro who looked at her, then the pamphlet and with a small sigh she made a motion to continue talking.

“Was the Guild Founded by a Sage?”

“It was actually, that’s at the end of the pamphlet but that was a decent observation.”

Naro looked back at the cover of the pamphlet, it wasn’t really a guess, he just doubted the people of this world would make something like this.

Not wanting to press his luck with further quet Ava, Naro skimmed through the pamphlet as he headed over towards the job board.

“Hello New Adventurer, if you’re reading this Pamphlet then I’m sure you have a ton of questions! Don’t worry, I your friendly fellow adventurer Alexis will help you figure this all out!”

“...it feels like a self help book,” Naro mumbled before flipping through the pages.

Appearances aside the Pamphlet was very informative telling Naro the basics of adventuring, it even went over the ranks, starting from F and going up to SSS. Though SS was the last recognizable rank by the guild, this caused him to speak to Ava again when he returned to the desk.

“SSS ranks are adventurers who serve Royalty, like kings and queens,” Ava said. “They’re tied to guild but not ‘employed’ by us.”

“What about the blank box above my Class?”

“You mean above Mage, that’ll be your Adventurer title, that’s also in the Pamphlet.”

“I see…I think I have everything I need then. I’ll take this quest then.”

Ava grabbed the paper and with a half-lidded gaze read through it, however her eyes slowly opened as she read the contents.

“...you can read right?” She asked.

“Uh…yes? It’s an herb-gathering quest right?”

“It is…and you’re willing to do it.”

“I am…is that a problem.”

“Nope! No problem at all. I’ll process it immediately."

Naro wasn’t sure why Ava was so full of energy all of a sudden, but she handed the paper back to him with her customer service smile again.

“Their are instructions on how to retrieve them properly, and their location on the back of the paper. The guild thanks you for taking this annoy…I mean necessary quest.”

“Did you just say-”

“Oh I have to return to these documents. If you need anything else just review the pamphlet or check the handbook.”

Grabbing a stack of papers Ava retreated to a door into the back room, turning Naro went to leave deciding just to finish the quest.

The guards gave him a look but let him pass after he showed his Guild Id, reminding him about monsters and that they didn’t help anyone outside the town. Acknowledging it he made his way out of the town and into the massive forest.

While he knew the massive greenery was real it was a different feel to see it from a distance, and for his boots to meet grass, that had been on sand seconds before.

The sudden shift was almost disorienting, a sweet scent slipped past his nose, and he was sure he smelled honey of all things as he continued forward. The breeze that passed through felt a bit warmer than the village, probably because this wind was genuine and not magically manufactured, it still felt like spring all the same.

Everywhere he looked green met him, the trees stretched high above him, sunlight filtering through them, casting shadows of the verdant beheamoths branches as he walked.

There was more than enough light for him to see everything around him, he couldn’t see where the forest ended and the desert began anymore, only bushes full of berry’s, tree’s with fruits hanging off them and of course animals jumping form tree to tree, skittering ahead and behind him, and some flying above him.

The creatures he saw looked similar to some from his own world, but not exactly the same, what seemed like a bluejay resting in a tree actually had four wings instead of two when it stretched to peck itself a bit.

“The pamphlet did say that there were different kind of monsters, docile and malicious ones, small to large and that some would resemble gentle creatures.”

There was a small path in the forest, which split into a fork as he continued forward, he took the right path due to the map on the requests. This forest was used for most excursions, and so long as one didn’t go deep into the forest running into anything dangerous was unlikely.

“Basically follow the path…easy,” Naro said coming to a stop. “The herbs should be…here…”

Naro found the herbs but there was something in front of him eating the herbs, a round blue creature that seemed to resembled pudding with a black sphere in the center of it. He didn’t need the handbook to know what was in front of him, what games he played told him what this thing was.

“A slime…”

The creature turned as he spoke, two pairs of black eyes meeting his, leaves were hanging out of it’s ‘mouth’ and Naro lowered his body as the creature spit them out and turned fully towards him.

“Okay…it’s a slime. Slimes are simple creatures…I can win this,” Naro said.

Reaching to his side he grabbed a small club, he had bought it on the way to the forest, just in case he ran into a monster, he was glad now.

“Okay…one clean hit…my first battle. Let’s do this.”

Naro leapt forward raising the club above his head, the slime seem to switch recognizing his animosity only when Naro was already closing the distance. He brought the club down and slammed it into the slime.

The slime’s body lowered a bit at the force, only to bounce back up, which Naro being unprepared for, was unable to dodge the club rebounding and crashing hard into his own skull, knocking him onto his back, black overtaking his vision as he passed out.