A First Quest

Souma woke up to the sound of vague voices outside his window, and the sunlight coming in through the now open wooden shutters. He was curled in front of a cold stove, and his neck was stiff from sleeping on the floor.

"About time you woke up, human. I have been awake for hours."

Souma rolled over as much as his stiff muscles would let him, and glared at Selina, who was sitting on the bed, hugging her knees and staring down at him.

That's right. This idiot barged in last night but I was too tired to kick her out. I should have just slept in her room.

"And you just sat there watching me sleep?"

"I-I did no such thing!" Selina turned away from him and glared at the corner of the room.

Souma sat up, and slowly stretched out his body.

"What do we do now?" Selina wrinkled her nose. "We didn't talk about it last night, but... We're really going to join that Reiny woman? Can we really trust her?"

"I don't think we have much choice. Unless you managed to think of a way to make the Adventurer's Guild let us into the dungeon?"

"Not really," Selina shook her head. "How about you?"

"Me neither," Souma shook his head. "Let's trust her. At least for now. Come on, she said she'd be waiting downstairs."

Having worked out their short-term plans, the two of them left Souma's room. Even before they came down the stairs, the change in the guild was obvious. The previous night, the reception had been quiet and withdrawn. Now it was hard to hear over the noise. Just like when he'd walked through the streets of Altoria at night, Souma couldn't help but feel a little buzz of excitement. All the tables were taken up by all manner of men and women, laughing, talking seriously, or just eating breakfast. Most of them were wearing the same sort of light armor Reiny had, but there were a couple dressed in expensive looking plate armor, and one or two were even wearing draping cloaks and pointed hats.

"Hey! Over here!"

They looked over the crowd to see Reiny waving at them. She was hard to miss. She looked more or less the same as she had the day before, though now she was wearing a small backpack, and there were at least four different scabbards strapped to her waist.

"Come on, this way!" She waved them towards the front desk as she got up out of her seat.

Souma and Selina obediently followed her to the reception area, where Orlo had been replaced with a much younger and prettier girl wearing a smart white and blue uniform. As they got closer, she looked out from under a light blue beret at Souma, then Selina, and finally at Reiny.

"What's this supposed to be?" She asked Reiny crisply.

"These are two new adventurers!"

"Don't be stupid. Get out of here."

"What are you on about?" Reiny spluttered.

"They're obviously children. I couldn't possibly sign them up."

"Everybody looks like a child to you. They're fine, trust me. I'm vouching for them."

The girl at the counter leaned in to look at Souma. Close up, he saw that her ears were slightly pointed. "You, boy. Did this old hag trick you into doing this? Is she going to take you out into fields and make you work as a slave?"

"N-no?" Souma looked at Reiny. "Are you?"

"Hag!?" Reiny fumed, ignoring Souma. "You're like a hundred years older than me, Yurial! Stupid elf!"

Yurial clicked her tongue at Reiny. "Petulant goat. In elf years I'm barely a teenager. On the other hand, you are essentially a walking coffin."

"Just sign them up!"

"You're really going to vouch for them? I didn't think you did that sort of thing? Wait. Are these your children, old woman?"

"I don't have any children!"

"Of course not. How rude of me. Spinster for life. So why are you vouching for them?"

"They're special," Reiny folded her arms.

"Oh? How?"

"None of your business! Just get the application forms out!"

Yurial glared at Reiny for a while longer, but reached under the counter and retrieved two sheets of parchment, and placed an ink pot and quill in front of Souma and Selina.

"Fill these in, then five coppers each. I'll go get some blank tags."

As Yurial wandered off through the door behind the counter, Selina looked at Souma. "Five coppers each? We don't have that much."

Reiny waved her off. "Let's just get these filled in."

The form itself was more like a contract, binding an adventurer to the guild. The part that needed filling in was very short, with only enough space to write their names and professions. At the bottom of each parchment was a circular pattern of sigils.

More than anything, Souma was surprised to find he could read it. It seemed that whatever magic was allowing him to understand what people were saying was also giving him a free pass for reading and writing.

"Profession?" Souma looked up at Reiny. "What should I put here?"

"It means the job you expect you'll be doing in the party."

"I can write whatever I want?"

"Hmm, I suppose given what you've told me about your unique skill, maybe you should write 'Support'."

"Support?"

Souma frowned. That would make him something like a healer, or maybe a mage, but he didn't have any of those skills. And it also meant he'd be leaving most of the hard work to Selina. He wasn't about to say it, but he'd kind of been holding on to a mental image of himself rushing out to the front of the group waving a sword and shooting things with lightning bolts.

"Is that... really going to be helpful?" He asked doubtfully.

"Your unique skill seems like it works at medium range, so it'll work out. We can worry about rounding out your other skills later on. For now 'Support' is fine."

Souma didn't feel  convinced, but did as he was told. "If you say so."

"Foolish human!" Selina grinned at him. "I had no such doubts!" She proudly held up her application form. Written in an excessively florid hand she had predictably filled out her profession as Demon Lord.

Reiny smacked her in the back of the head. "That's your unique skill, not your profession," she scolded her. "For you... Hmmm... From what I know about the Demon Lord skill, you'll definitely be out on the front lines... Let's go with 'Offense'."

"Fine." Selina begrudgingly crossed out and corrected her profession.

As they finished, Yurial the elf returned, holding two bright silver tags threaded onto thin chains, and a thin needle.

"Put these on," the elf instructed, handing them one of the tags each. After they'd done so, she deftly took their hands, poked them with the needle, and deposited a drop of blood inside the small magic circle on their application forms.

For a while, nothing. And then Souma watched in awe as both the magic circles and their silver tags briefly glowed pale white. When the light died down, the magic circle had vanished from the parchment and the tags felt warm to touch.

"There. All done. Those tags will keep track of your activities and level from now on, so don't lose them. They also mark you as members of the Altoria Adventurer's Guild, so don't go getting into trouble in other cities, or I'll be the one who hears about it."

"Y-yes ma'am," Souma bowed his head.

"Go on, take a look. You should be able to see your current level," Yurial motioned with one hand.

"I think mine's broken?" Selina frowned.

"Let me have a look," Yurial leaned in and scooped the tag up from her neck. "Looks fine to me."

"It's obviously wrong. It says I'm level one."

Reiny smacked her in the back of the head again. "Of course you're level one! You only just joined!"

"Ow! The Glorious Demon Lord shouldn't have to start at level one! I should at least be level nine thousand!" Then she scurried behind Souma to get out of Reiny's head-smacking range.

"Not even the legendary heroes ever got to level nine thousand! Just start at level one like every one else."

"F-fine," Selina poked her head out from Souma's armpit. "I'm sure it'll just take a few weeks anyway."

"That's the spirit. Try not to get killed." Yurial smiled, though Souma felt she sounded more worried than encouraging. The elf turned to Reiny, and her tone did a quick back-flip. "You. Money. Now."

"That attitude is why people don't like elves, Yurial," Reiny put a stack of copper on the desk.

"People like me just fine. Everybody loves elves. They like our hair. People would die for me. We're mysterious." Yurial dead-panned.

"The only mysterious thing about you is how you can say that with a straight face."

As Reiny and Yurial bickered, Souma looked down at his tag. The metal chip itself seemed totally blank, but when he focused on it, a small lilac screen appeared in front of him.

Name: Arita Souma
Profession: Support
Guild: Altoria
Skills: Language I, Restrain I
Level: 1
Registered Exp.: 0

It's like a game...

Meanwhile, having reached some kind of conclusion to their argument, Reiny put a small scrap of paper on the counter in front of Yurial. "One more thing. Let me have this ticket."

Now that there was a little more light in the room for him to see by, Souma noticed for the first time there was a whole wall worth of those little scraps of paper lining one side of the guild.

"As you wish, wise old woman. What party shall I register it under?" Yurial took up one of the quills and looked at Reiny expectantly.

"My party! Obviously!" Reiny shouted. "I'm not an old woman!"

"And those two?" the elf motioned with the quill at Souma and Selina.

"They'll be joining me."

Yurial curled her lip, but signed the ticket and held it back out to Reiny.

"Good," Reiny snatched the ticket. Turning her back on the elf, she motioned for Souma and Selina to follow her. "Let's get a move on, this quest isn't too far out of town, but I want to make a few-"

"Try not to die of old age before you turn the ticket in!" Yurial called out behind them.

"Shut up!" Reiny spun around. "Shut up you stupid elf! Guuaaaagh!"

"Come agaaaaain," the elf smiled sweetly.

"Die!" Reiny turned back to Souma and Selina and coughed into her hand. "As I was saying, I want to make a few stops before we leave town."

As Reiny left the guild, Souma looked back one last time at Yurial, who was leaning on the reception counter. She smiled sweetly and waved at him. He waved back, and hurried after Reiny.

It turned out that there were two stops on Reiny's itinerary.

The first was a little clothing store, where Reiny bought a fur cloak and some leather boots for Souma.

"Miss Reiny, we really don't have any money."

"You can pay back me later. For now it won't do to draw any more unwanted attention. Come on, put those boots on and leave those... whatever those things are covering your feet here. We're not done yet."

The second stop was close by. Reiny took them to a much larger store that appeared to have a connected smithy, from which Souma could hear methodical steel hammering.

"It's going to be hard to finish this quest if neither one of you are armed," Reiny pointed out.

The inside of the armorer was filled from top to bottom with more weapons than Souma had ever imagined he'd see in one place.

"I'll take this sword!" Selina pointed at a large two-handed broadsword, its cross guard an intricate pair of gold and silver entwined dragons. Souma had to admit it looked impressive, though he wondered how Selina would go about swinging something three times her size.

Reiny handed her a spear instead.

"This'll do to begin with. It'll let you get involved without getting too close. At least until we can get you some armor."

Selina pouted, but didn't complain.

For Souma, Reiny found a heavy staff. It was thick, but not so thick he couldn't hold it easily, and it tapered out at the top, so it looked more like a giant club.

"You won't be fighting directly, so this is fine."

"Is it a magic staff?" Souma looked at his new weapon hopefully.

"No, but if anybody gets too close you can bonk them on the head."

Before they left, Reiny picked up a few more things seemingly at random. Pouches, herbs, some rope. She handed some coins over to the shopkeeper, and pushed them back out onto the street.

After they had made one last stop to pick up some fruits from a street vendor, Souma finally asked, "Miss Reiny? Is it alright for you to buy all this stuff? I appreciate it, but it really seems like you're spending a lot of money."

"If it's the money that's bugging you, I have plenty. Don't worry about it."

"Still, is it alright letting us tag along with you?"

Reiny seemed to think about it for a while, and ran her thumb thoughtfully over the scar that went from one side of her face to the other. "If it makes you feel better, why don't why we say I'm doing it to pay back an old friend."

"An old friend?"

But Reiny refused to be drawn into it.

They passed the city gates, and just like Reiny said it wasn't long until they arrived at a wide field not too far out from town. A small sloping valley that swept out into grassy plains.

"There's been sightings of Mud Wolves around here. Ah, look, I can already see a few over there." Reiny pointed down into the field where a few small grey and blue dogs were snarling stupidly at each other. "They're pretty dumb, basically harmless, but they cause trouble for the trade conveys that come through here. And if the breed too much it'll be a headache for everyone. So I got us a quest to thin them out a little."

Souma looked down into the field, where he could see small groups of the wolves running around each other. Then he looked over at Selina, who was bouncing up and down with a fiery look in her eyes like it was taking all her will power not to rush down and start stabbing things at random.

"It really is like a game," he murmured.

Beside him, Reiny chuckled to herself. There was something melancholy in the way she did so, but before Souma could think on it, she motioned down the hill. "Come on, those wolves won't kill themselves."

Souma set his jaw and gripped his staff. It was time to go grind some levels.