Chapter 288 - Registration

Mercury and Party chatted for a bit until Mercury let out a yawn, a rather long one at that

"...Sorry, I didn't think I was that tired…"

[Well you have been awake for about a week now~]

"I see… Time really passes quickly when you're in good company"

[My oh my~ How smooth~ In that case, I think I'll reward you Mercury~]

Mercury gave a smile

"I'll gladly accept any reward you give me Party"

Party moved over to the far end of the couch and then she patted her thigh

[Come, lay down~]

"... Sure"

Mercury laid down on the couch and put his head on the thigh of the avatar, then Party began combing his hair while humming a tune, Mercury wanted to stay awake but eventually, he fell into a deep sleep with the last thing he heard was a gentle [Night Mercury~]...

When Mercury awoke again the avatar laid on the altar lifelessly, he quickly figured that Party had other things to do, he let out a yawn when he stood up from the couch that then faded into pure white light and disappeared into nothingness

"...Neat"

Mercury then stifled another yawn before he walked out of the prayer room and then onwards out of the temple, the sun was high in the sky and the city was filled with life, people of various races, some of which Mercury didn't know went about their day in the busy city

'Well first is some clothes… Then a sheath for the sword, from there I need to thank the lady from last night, then learn how to earn money…'

Mercury then proceeded to walk around the city and quickly found his way to the shopping streets where he brought three sets of clothes, a backpack, and a sheath for the sword, then he walked to an inconspicuous ally and stomped his left foot, then the sword he had taken from the underground pyramid shot out of the ground and landed in his hand, Mercury gave a smile and sheathed the blade that glinted under the sunlight in the new sheath, then he secured the sheath to his belt

'My remaining cel is about 200… I need to find a job soon… I don't want to sleep on the streets… Also, I have a feeling that those golems are getting closer to the surface so I might want to leave the city as soon as possible...'

Others might be unaware, but he could feel it, micro-vibrations with about an hours worth of interval which signaled that the golems were still moving towards the surface even as he walked around leisurely

'Well, I have no concessions to anyone in this city so I guess it's fine… Though I might want to hint to that lady at the guild that she should leave the city soon…'

With that in mind, Mercury limped towards the guild where he hoped he could meet the lady from yesterday and give her back the cheap clothes

'Here we are…'

Mercury put most of his weight on the cane he had made out of compressed dirt from a back alley as he limped into the guild, that said the cane didn't look like it was made of dirt, instead it looked like a sandstone cane

'Gotta find a way to heal my leg sometime soon… Maybe that essence shop has something to offer? Need to check that later...'

Molly worked a day shift right after her night shift ended, a testament to her desperation to earn cel, she stood half-awake nodding off behind the counter waiting for the next hunter to show up when suddenly a man with a cane walked into the guild, besides the cane the man gave a youthful impression with short brown hair and rather pale skin for this kind of environment, besides that he had a tattoo under his left eye, some sort of character from a long-dead language or simply a clan marking, Molly quickly recognized the young man as the one she had helped during the night and gave him a wave, the young man gave a smile and walked over assisted by his cane and before long he stood in front of Molly, Mercury showed a smile

"Thanks for your help last night"

Molly showed what could be considered as a more genuine business smile

"No problem, besides you, would be able to handle all those hunters would you not?"

Mercury showed a thin smile but didn't answer her question instead he shifted his weight on the cane slightly and reached his hand out to Molly

"My name is Mercury"

Molly gave a nod and shook his hand

"I am Molly, I work here at the guild"

Mercury gave a nod and asked

"What does this guild do exactly?"

"Oh, you are interested in joining the hunters guild?"

Mercury gave a nod

"My friend lent me some cel but I want to pay her back before I leave the city"

"I see, in that case, shall I explain what the hunters guild does and how it works?"

"If you would"

"Well, it is my job… First off this is the hunters guild, as the name implies it employs hunters, hunters hunt various animals and magic beasts, then sell parts of or the whole animal/magic beast to the guild for cel"

Mercury gave a nod and asked

"So it's freelance work?"

"Yes and no, hunters are bound to the guild and are required to do at least 1 request per month or their membership will expire… Speaking of membership each hunter is easily recognizable by their hunter metal tag, they come in 10 different kinds starting from the bottom, wood, bronze, iron, steel, silver, gold, platinum, mithril, and adamant as the top rank, ranks decided what kind of requests you can take, the hunter metal tags also work as ID as they have personal information on the backside"

"...Does one require any identification to become a member of the hunter guild?"

"No not at all, one simply has to pass a simple combat test to join… The combat test decides which of the bottom 3 ranks one will be placed into"

"I see… Can I take the test now?"

"Sure, if you wish to join the guild today?"

Mercury gave a thin smile

"That was the plan"

Molly gave a smile, there was a bonus in for her if Mercury could rank good on his ranking test

"Well then, please follow after me"

Mercury gave a nod and followed after Molly as she walked out from behind the counter and through an open door into a training courtyard where hunters were busy training various kinds of things such as archery, swordsmanship, magic of various forms and there were even some throwing small stones. When Mercury walked out into the training courtyard he gathered some attention, but most hunters merely scoffed at him if not outright jeered at him when they saw he was walking with a cane, Mercury ignored them and followed after Molly and quickly arrived at the place where some other mages were practicing their spells

"Well here we are, well just show me some of your spells, I know you're good for them"

"What should I target?"

Molly pointed to the round archery targets, there were 5 of them, Mercury gave a nod and tapped a finger on his cane which sent a pulse down the cane and through the ground, the pulse spread out through the earth pinging the 5 targets, by now some of the mages had figured out what he was doing and had their jaws dropped, then Mercury tapped the cane with the same finger another time and then 5 rock shards shot up from the ground and hovered in the air for a moment before Mercury once again tapped a finger on his cane sending the rock shards flying for a moment before they hit the 5 targets right in the middle, burning themselves into the wooden targets… All in all the whole process had taken less than 3 seconds, Mercury showed a slight smile before he muttered

"Something like that?"

Molly was the first to wake from her stupor and gave a nod

"Yes with that you will be placed in the iron rank, come follow me and we'll finalize your registration"

Mercury walked after Molly assisted by his cane, leaving the other hunters in shock, after the two of them left the courtyard one of them muttered

"That's the pervert from last night..?"

Another one quickly asked

"You mean the one that whooped David and his gang?"

"Yeah, I am almost sure it's him"

The other hunters looked even more shocked before one of them, an old man shook his and muttered under his breath

"Mages sure are weird…"

Meanwhile, Mercury finished his registration and received a small 10 by 6-centimeter iron plate with a bow icon on one side and his information on the other side, Mercury gave a genuine smile and thanked Molly

"Thanks, Molly… Oh, right I herald some worrying things at the temple…"

Mercury leaned in and whispered to Molly

"You should probably leave the city soon, something big is on its way…"

Molly looked serious and gave a nod before her face showed a slight blush and she leaned in and whispered

"In that case do you have some time later tonight?"

"Sure, just tell me when and where"

"Great! How about we meet outside the guild just after sundown?"

"Sure, see you then"

Mercury walked over to the request board, Molly had explained how to take a request while she was finalizing his registration, Mercury scanned the request board before he found a request for an iron rank hunter

"Scorpions huh…"

-Hunter extermination request-

-Required rank: Iron

-Description: hunt scorpions outside the city to help protect travelers and locals alike

-Proof of extermination: poison barb (Be careful not to sting yourself!)

-Reward: 50 cel per barb (higher reward for rare scorpions)

"....Let's go hunt some scorpions"