Volume 1, 3: The Guild and The Inn

I opened the wooden door and entered the Guild.

The Guild was as simple and sturdy as it looked from the outside. In front of the entrance was a wooden counter divided into four partitions, just like the counters at banks. The first section was larger than the other sections and had around 3m wide. It had written “purchase” on the window. The remaining three counters to the left had nothing written on them, but they were probably meant for buying as well.

The one on the far left was vacant, but the other two counters had women in Guild uniforms. Were they around 20 years old? The woman in the left seat was blonde and had blue eyes, and the woman in the right seat had dark brown hair, but her eyes were also blue. I finally found someone with dark hair. Both of them were beautiful women, and I was grateful that someone in this world resembled someone from Japan. However, it seemed that black eyes were rare.

The Guild uniform had blue attire with a white collar. It had long sleeves and the overall exposure was modest, but it felt neat rather than plain.

F

There was something exposed in the walls right next to the main door. The walls were color coded and each color had been labeled Rank G, F, E, D, C, B, A, S. Hmm G was probably the lowest.

I also noticed whiteboards in the walls with 20 cm long and 30 cm wide. Those whiteboards had ranks, requests, rewards, and remarks. Most of them had detailed texts.

For example.

—

RANK: G

Request content: collection of Zunana grass

Reward: 30 Tael per 1 grass

Quantity: any amount will do

Remarks: No extra orders. The request will be fulfilled on the spot by bringing in Zunana grass. It is necessary to collect the grass from the root at an approximate length of 15 cm or more. Zunana grasses with a length of 10 cm or less will be purchased at 10 Tael each. If the length is shorter than that, it cannot be purchased. Also, the Zunana grass is sometimes confused with the Dokuzunana which is a similar but poisonous plant. As a reference, the stem of the Dokuzunana grass is square and the stem of the Zunana grass is round.

—

Apparently, centimeters were also used in this world. Or was it the result of the translating skill that I could understand it? Well, it didn’t matter as long as it didn’t get me in trouble.

I wondered if the Zunana grass name was translated as well. The characters that came to my mind were katakana, but the characters written in the quest were not katakana. This grass was a grass that did not exist in my original world, so the translation was probably a sloppy one. Anyway, in order to distinguish it from the Dokuzunana, I would need to appraise it. Well, if I ended up accepting this request, of course.

There were many requests from G-rank to E-rank, but from there the number decreased as the rank went up. There were no requests from B-rank or higher.

Looking at the few C-rank requests, most were about flock of orcs and gargons.*

I see, I see. A very tumultuous and worrisome situation would be classified as B-rank or A-rank. But, it looked like everything was tranquil around here. I didn’t know what a gargon was, but I felt relieved that orcs were the highest ranking enemy in this town. And it seemed unlikely that I would be eaten by a dragon if I went out of town.

Speaking of orcs, I wondered if they were the fat giant pig-like humanoids, I’ve seen in games.

I took my eyes off the quest board and looked to the left. This place had a small tavern inside. Round tables lined up in that area and each table had about four cheap wooden chairs.

There was a counter to the left, and an old man with a beard stood beside it. He was buying alcohol and food there. The tavern had a decent number of customers. There were about 5 groups of 2 to 4 people who seemed to be adventurers’ parties. They were drinking and talking happily. The male-female ratio was 4:1.

Most of the armors were made of leather armor. The only weapon that I could see hidden behind a table was a sturdy sword carried by a big man.

I couldn’t see any stairs leading to the second floor, but I wondered if there was a section with a staircase dedicated only to the staff.

I observed my surroundings quite meticulously, but I had to stop for now. I could attract attention if I remained standing at the entrance. For the time being, I went to the counter with a window that stood directly in front of me. The receptionist was a blonde woman.

I thought about what to say while approaching. Well, if I just said what I needed, even if I made a mistake, the damage would be small.

「Excuse me. I would like to register. 」

「Yes, registration. The registration fee will be three silver coins. Is that okay? 」

「Yes, no problem. 」

I took out three silver coins from my pocket and placed them on the counter. I only had one more silver coin left in my pocket.

「Please touch this. 」

The receptionist, who put the silver coins under the table, offered me a box made of iron. Somehow, I felt some similarity between this box and the white wall I touched at the gate when I entered this town.

When I touched it, the same status displayed at the gate appeared on the top of the box.

—

Name: Kaede

Age / Race / Gender: 20 / Human / Male

Level: 2

Awards and Penalties: None

Skills: Magic Qualities, Martial Arts Qualities, Fire Magic, Earth Magic, Water Magic.

—

I wondered if the display of HP and STR in the status was not that common.

The receptionist looked at me astonishingly, but she immediately returned to her senses and placed a silver plate about the size of a large business card on the box. Perhaps, it was the Guild card.

Then, the metal plate glowed pale blue for a moment, and characters appeared on the metal plate.

—

Kaede / Human / Male

RANK: G

Punishment: None

Request achievement history:

Subjugation history:

—

It seemed that the Guild card contained only the minimum amount of information. Request achievement history and subjugation history were blank. It seemed that the green dog I killed before did not count. Would the subjugation history appear automatically?

「Then, I will explain the Guild’s function. 」

「Yes. I appreciate it. 」

She was going to explain how this place worked. I was wondering before if I should ask her to explain it to me, but I thought she would say, “There is no need for further explanations, okay?” I felt relieved that that didn’t happen.

「As you can see, this is a Guild card. I will explain everything from the top first.」

「The first row has your name, race, and gender written on it. The second row is your rank. The G-rank is the lowest, followed by F, E, D…and A-rank. The S-rank is the highest rank. However, since there are no S-rank adventurers at the present, the highest rank is A. The Guild decides the promotion of the rank by considering the requests’ achievements and the history of demon subjugation. There is an exam above the D-rank. In addition, if the achievement rate of your requests is poor, you may be demoted to a lower rank. The third row will say if you did something wrong. If you do something wrong, then the word “thief” will appear. Even if a murder is not related to stealing, it will be appear “thief” regardless. However, if you kill a thief, you will not be a thief yourself, and even if the opponent dies because of a consented duel, you won’t be considered a thief.」

A duel, huh…I was a man. But, if I didn’t want to take a duel that was imposed on me, then I would gladly take on the label of coward imposed by this culture and escape gracefully! I would rather accept that type of victory over a challenge in a duel. I felt sorry for my opponent.

「The request achievement history and subjugation history of the 4th and 5th rows will be automatically added when the request is fulfilled and when a monster is defeated. If you kill a thief, that information will be written in the subjugation history as well. You can only see the last three achievements and defeats, but the Guild has access to your whole history.」

Why was a thief the same as a monster…So I could only see the last three defeats in the subjugation history, while the Guild would be able to see it all? Interesting.

Well, should I just throw the corpse into the item box and use that to confirm the number of defeats?

「Finally, it is impossible to forge a Guild card, so it won’t be possible to create a fake one. Moreover, it may be impossible, but if you try to forge a Guild card, you will receive the death penalty, even at the first attempt. Please take note of this.」

Scary! Why was the forgery of the Guild card such a vile act?

「That’s all for the Guild card explanation. Next, let’s talk about the requests. The request board is over there.」

The receptionist pointed to the wall on the right, which resembled a whiteboard.

「If you want to receive a request out of the “No extra orders” requests in the quest board, then please bring the request with your Guild card and place an order. You can only receive requests of your rank. Since you are a G-rank, you can receive up to 3 requests at once. But you will be able to receive up to 5 requests in the E-rank or higher. All you have to do is complete the request during the request period. Please note that if you fail to do so, you will pay double the reward as a penalty. However, if there is a catastrophe or other external force, that will be taken into account. Some unpredictable events can disturb the work of adventurers. The limited number of requests is a measure to ensure that adventurers won’t receive an unreasonable amount of requests. Please follow the instructions on the quest board that says, “No extra orders”. If it is a subjugation request, it will show on the subjugation history of your Guild card. But, if it is a collection request, then you’ll have to bring the actual item with you. Even if you have already received three requests, you can still fulfill the request that says, “No extra orders”.」

The whiteboard seemed to be the quest board.

「The day you clear a request it will go to the subjugation history, so please be careful with the date of the issued request. Clearing a request for the subjugation history before the date the request was made will not make you any money. Please note that requests issued within 30 days of subjugation will be subject to clearing. In addition, once the request is cleared, it won’t be possible to add extras. If there is a request to subdue one animal and a request to subdue two animals, it is possible to achieve both by defeating three animals. Moreover, even if it’s not related to the request itself, you can buy items such as herbs and monsters at the counter over there. Furthermore, you can bring the corpse of a monster, but it will increase the capacity of your item box. Since there is a limit to item boxes, it is recommended to check the parts that can be sold in advance and only bring those parts. If you have any other questions about individual requests, please feel free to ask. Do you have any questions?」

「No. Not particularly. 」

What a convenient system. Was paper not popular in this world? If so, maybe that was the reason why they used a whiteboard to write requests instead of regular paper.

My item box had a capacity of 1012, so it won’t fill up. I wondered if it had a weight limit though.

「Well then. You are a Guild member from now on. I expect you to act consciously as a Guild member. Do you want to accept a request? I do not recommend you to start at night because the visibility is poor and it will be easy for monsters to attack you unexpectedly.」

「Yeah, it’s already dark, so I’ll leave it for tomorrow.」

「Yes, I understand. That’s a wise decision.」

I left the Guild and headed for the gate. The sun had set already. Most stores were preparing to close, and the only ones that were open were taverns. The streets were almost deserted.

I arrived at the gate.

「I got a temporary ID, but I’ve registered as an adventurer. 」

「Okay, so touch this. 」

I touched the same white wall as when I came in. After the guard confirmed my identity, I received the ID card and he gave me the silver coin. I put it in my pocket, thanked the guard, and then I asked him which inn I should go.

「Thank you very much. By the way, could you recommend me a cheap inn around here?」

「If you go straight to the left at that corner, you will find “Haneyasume Inn”. It is popular with adventurers. It’s 600 Tael for 1 night. It is reasonably cheap, but it’s safe and the food is delicious.」

「Thank you for your recommendation. I will go now. 」

I turned left at the corner as the guard told me to do. The alley felt like a residential area. I didn’t see many shops unlike the street to the Guild.

I went straight for about 30m, and then, I saw a two-story wooden building with a sign that said, “Haneyasume Inn”. It was not a new building, but it was not decaying either. Rather, it felt like an ordinary inn. It may be cheap because it was located out of the main area.

With that in mind, I opened the door of Haneyasume Inn and went inside. It truly felt like an ordinary inn that one could see on a RPG. There was a building next door, which I didn’t know whether it was a tavern or a restaurant.

「Welcome. 」

A girl, who looked 12 or 13 years old, greeted me when I came inside. The girl who greeted me fluttered into the back of the inn. Soon, a woman of good appearance came out.