First Time At The Adventurer Guild

We arrived at the Adventurer Guild in the center of the city.

It was a large three-story building, its white walls glaringly bright in the midday sun.

Inside, there was a reception counter, with what looked like a waiting room beside it.

On the wall, a bulletin board was covered with small notes.

I had already asked the beautiful elf Cheryl from the slave merchant about the registration process.

For some reason, the moment she realized I was a hero, she had become very kind to me, even though I was just a washed-up former one.

First, I spoke to the bespectacled woman at the counter.

“I’d like to register as an adventurer.”

“Yes, adventurer registration. The registration fee is fifty thousand gort per person; is that alright?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. For both of us, please.”

I placed one large gold coin on the counter.

“Understood—please wait a moment while I prepare the aptitude test.”

The receptionist put away the large coin, stood up, and went into the back.

We heard her rustling around, getting something ready.

Then from the waiting room behind the counter came mocking laughter.

“Fresh meat, huh.”

“Guy looks pretty plain.”

“But the chick he’s got is gorgeous.”

“She looks like a healer… Hey, girl, wanna join my party?”

“Gyahaha!”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw filthy, slovenly men drinking.

Trembling in fear, Liricia pressed herself against my side.

“W-what are those people…?”

“Don’t mind them. Just a bunch of deadbeats.”

Drinking in the waiting room instead of going out on a quest in broad daylight wasn’t normal.

Their whole appearance screamed burnout.

Apparently my words reached them, because a man sitting in the back of the waiting room stood up.

A giant of a man with a huge axe strapped to his back.

His heavy footsteps thudded across the floor as he came toward me.

“Deadbeats, huh? —Oh, you’ve got a big mouth for a newbie, don’t you?”

“Yeah, sorry. To be precise, I meant you’re a deadbeat just like me.”

I was such a failure I’d been fired from being a hero; I was obviously a deadbeat, too.

The big man came closer and glared down at me.

“No way in hell I’m the same as you! I’m Rank A! You looking for a fight, huh!?”

“I don’t have anything on me I’d bother selling to you. Don’t flatter yourself.”

“W-what was that!?”

The big man’s eyes bulged and his hand went to the massive axe on his back.

But just then, the receptionist returned carrying a round orb and some cards.

She pushed up her glasses and glared at him.

“Fighting inside the guild is strictly forbidden.”

“Che… You’ll regret this.”

For some reason, the big man spat a curse and backed off.

—Were guild receptionists people to be feared, somehow?

While I was pondering that, the receptionist slotted a card into a device and set the orb on the counter.

“Please place your hand on this orb.”

“Like this?”

I laid my hand on the orb.

It began to glow a pale blue.

The light grew stronger and stronger.

The receptionist’s eyes went wide.

“T-this is…!”

“What an incredibly pure power!”

Next to me, Liricia’s violet eyes widened in shock as well.

The adventurers in the waiting room began to stir.

“Wh-what is that light…? Is it light element!?”

“No, that’s different! No way—that’s holy element!”

“That’s an unbelievable amount of holy power.”

“This is nuts.”

“Oh my, how lovely.”

“It feels… comforting…”

Ordinary humans were said to be born with one element: fire, water, wind, earth, or light.

Monsters and demonic races were darkness.

Heroes were holy element—a rare attribute that appeared only once every few decades.

Amid the rising commotion, a sudden roar echoed.

Craaaaack!

The crystal orb shattered.

The overflowing magic turned into a raging wind that tore through the guild hall.

“Whoa!”

“What the hell!?”

“Kyaa!”

“Get down!”

I instinctively wrapped my arms around Liricia to shield her.

The wind lashed at my arms and back, but I refused to let even a scratch touch Liricia.

Blushing in my embrace, Liricia murmured:

“Th-thank you… Master…”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re very important to me, Liricia.”

“Y-yes…”

For some reason, she reddened even more and looked down.

After a while, the wind died away.

The receptionist peeked up from behind the counter.

“Well, that was off the charts… You’re only the second person to break a crystal orb.”

“Who was the first?”

“Our guildmaster.”

Saying that, the receptionist pulled the card out of the device with a pair of pliers.

She handed it to me.

“It seems the registration itself went through. Please confirm.”

I took the card and looked at it.

Name: Alec Class: Magic Swordsman

Adventurer Rank: F

Strength: A Agility: S Wisdom: B Magic: SSS

So these were my stats.

My magic was the highest—but I couldn’t even use spells to make use of it.

No wonder I’d been fired from being a hero.

And apparently my aptitude was magic swordsman.

A class that fought by infusing swords with various types of magic and spells.

Could I really do that…? I could only pour holy wave energy into things.

From the waiting room, I heard whispers.

“That guy’s insane.”

“He broke the crystal orb…”

“Same as the guildmaster, seriously.”

For some reason, a lot of them seemed scared of me.

—It’s just that my holy wave energy is high; it’s not that amazing.

Next, Liricia registered.

They brought out a new crystal orb.

Golden and white light overflowed from it as her card was inscribed.

This orb did not break.

She was registered as a recovery specialist.

Well, that figured.

The receptionist spoke.

“That completes registration. If you enter the dungeons near the royal capital and slay monsters, you can sell the parts for bounties. There are also quests available to adventurers.”

She pointed toward the wall, where several notes with requests written on them were pinned up.

Looking them over, I muttered:

“There aren’t many.”

“It’s already afternoon. Fresh, high-paying requests go up in the morning. Those get snatched up fast.”

“I see. We’ll come back tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, please do your best.”

With her words at my back, I left the guild.

It was just before evening, the sun beginning to tilt toward the horizon.

Hand in hand, Liricia and I walked down the main street.

She looked up at my face and asked:

“What will we do now?”

“Let’s see. We’ll buy whatever herbs and potions you need at the apothecary, then call it a day. We start adventuring tomorrow.”

“Yes. …The cheap inns are that way, but…”

“No, not today. —Precisely because it’s today, we’re going to a nice inn with a bath.”

I’d bought an unconditional slave, so… I was allowed to be a man, right?

“Y-yes… Master.”

Still holding my hand, Liricia bowed her head, her face blazing red.

That gesture was unbearably cute. How could she be this cute?

Struggling to keep my cool, I walked on down the street.

On the way to the inn, we stopped by an apothecary and bought three potions and five types of herbs.

The total came to four thousand nine hundred gort.

I now had twenty-five large gold coins, five gold coins, five large silver coins, and one silver coin left—two million five hundred fifty-five thousand one hundred gort.