Chapter 3

Pushing them open he entered only to realize that he should have judged from the outside.

The inside was no better than the outside, he could see openings in the wooden floors and ceiling, the white paint on the walls, what remained of it, had yellowed with age.

Looking around the building seemed to be a repurposed tavern, there was a large desk at the end of the room that resembled a bar, while some things had been moved he could still see some of the remnants of what it had been from the stains and imprints in the wall and floor.

Walking forward his eyes moved around the room, there were a few tables and he could see people, dressed in different outfits, but there was barely anyone in the place. He could count on one hand how many were actually around, and they paid him no particular mind save a single glance.

He swallowed his nervousness and continued forward, it was hard to feel comfortable in a room full of people with sharp weapons but the growling of his stomach was a good motivator, he hadn’t eaten anything since coming here and the sky was already turning orange outside.

He needed some kind of work at this point, if this worked like the stories he knew he could at the very least get a job gathering herbs of some sort, he could look for fruit of some kind while he was in the forest, and hope it wasn’t poisonous.

Approaching the desk he noticed a woman sitting at it, messing with what seemed to be a marble. Short brown haired poked out from under her hat and her blue eyes were focused more on the object than anything around her. She was dressed in an outfit, on that reminded him of a hotel door man, especially with the buttons. The green outfit matched her eyes which remind focused on the marble even as she spoke.

“Welcome…to the…uh…Uliaz Adventuerer’s Guild. If you want a quest grab it from the job board over there.”

She motioned to a bronw board on the wall with the same amount of enthusiasm in her cold voice, nonexistent.

“Um…I’m actually here to sign up as an Adventuerer.”
The woman’s eyes widened and she immediately sat up, a smile quickly found it’s way onto her face, and straignting up she folded her hands in front of her before offering a bow.

“Welcome to the Uliaz Adventurere’s Guild!” She said before raising her body. “My name is…”

She trailed off once her eyes rested on Naro, her brows arched before lowering, the smile left her face, her shoulder slumped and sitting back down she returned to her marble.

“...Ava…”

It was almost impressive how fast she managed to switch, for a moment her melodic voice held hope, he wasn’t sure which was the ‘real’ her but that didn’t matter at present.

“Can you use magic?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” Naro responded.

“Can you use a weapon?”

He shook his head and she flicked the marble off the side of the table.

“Then the guild won’t hire you, thank you for visiting today.”

“Wait hold on. I’m not good at those things but I’m a hard worker. I-”
“The guild isn’t going to hire someone that can’t defend themselves,” Ava said glancing at him. “It looks bad if an Adventurer we hire dies in the field. You want to go into the forest right. There are monsters in there, you ever fought one?”

Naro flinched a bit hearing her say ‘monsters’, he had only met people being in this world. He knew this world had magic but he hadn’t thought about the possibility of monsters.

“No…I haven’t.”

“Then you’re a risk, and we don’t do risk especially here. This branch is barely standing, and we already got people who were lost in that forest. Anyway the door is that way.”

Ava pointed towards the door before it was thrown open, a trio of men walked into the guild, and the moment they did the few other adventurer’s looked away from them.

One of the men stood at the front of the group, he was a tall man wearing a leather top, his bulging arms were barely contained by red tunic he wore under it, his short red hair was the color of flames and his dark blue eyes shone with a dangerous determination. Accompained by the sword at his waist this man looked like a proper adventurer, from top to bottom. His brown boots rising up over his matching trousers he walked forward with a strong gait, his broad chest puffed out.

The two people next to him didn’t draw much attention, one was dressed similar to him but without the muscle and chiseled chin, he was lanky and hunched over slightly. The one on the other side was in black from head to toe, Naro could only see his eyes due to the cloth he wore around his face.

The other two screamed minions even from a glance.

Naro soon found a shadow over him as the man stopped inches from him, glancing down at him his eyes narrowing he opened his mouth and spoke, his low voice rough and curt.

“Move.”

Naro immediately took a few steps back muttering apologies before the adventurer leaned on the desk.

“Hello Ava, your favorite person is here. What quests do you have for me today?”

Naro noticed that Ava had returned to her ‘business mode’ again, straightened with the smile back on her face.

“Oh Beso you’re jokes are always so funny.”

“That wasn’t a jo-”

“Also the job board is right over there. I can give you details on any job you select but it’s easier just to check them yourselves.”

“I know that, maybe I wanted to speak with you.”

Naro noticed Ava’s smile twitch slightly but she still managed to keep it from slipping.

“Well we can talk after my quests, I’ll look at the board.”

“Good hunting Beso.”

Naro watched the trio move over to the board and Ava visibly relax before dropping a stack of papers on the desk, probably to ward off any further conversation.

“Who is that,” Naro mumbled looking at the group.

“That’s Beso, the only D rank Adventurer in town…and the most annoying.”

A man spoke behind Naro downing some of the drink in his mug before glancing at Naro.

“Best you stay out of his way, unless you want to be another ‘example’.”

“I…I see. Could you explain what you mean by D rank Adventurer.”

The man turned returning to his mug pretending not to hear, raising his head he looked over at Ava who offering him a single glance pointed at the door before turning to her ‘work’.

With little choice Naro left the guild and made his way back to the center of town.