45 The Life of an Adventurer (2/2)
Those two were chatting happily and seldom threw a piece of advice here and there. One was missing his left arm and his right eyes while the other had all his limbs more or less intact. Noticing the incoming group, the intact man stood up and marched toward them. Exchanging common pleasantries with the receptionist, he soon looked at the two newcomers and at their armors. They were perfectly intact, prompting him to be a little doubtful. To be clean and shiny was possible for even veterans, but the latter's equipment all had scratches, small holes and minor distortions on it. For the elder adventurer, it was easy to see that they never battle once in those armors. Because of that, his impression of the two immediately plummeted toward good for nothing.
”Listen up you two, my name is … No, you don't have what it takes to know my name yet. I don't know who you are, I don't know what you are, but I won't be clement just because mommy and daddy bought you those shiny things. In real life, you won't always wear them and attack can even happen when you are sleeping or washing. And because I am nice and friendly, I don't want that to happen to everyone. Therefore, get the hell out of those iron boxes and let me test your real skills.”
While saying this, the old man ignited his inner fire and his previously mild presence turned oppressive. Bloodlust and killing intent could be felt around like the human suddenly became a monster ready to pounce at the two. Countless rookies felt on their knees just because of that and promised to start at the bottom. Even some experienced adventurers still suffered under that. Smiling avidly at the two trainees, he awaited their reactions.
It was only at that moment however that both Davion and Meridiana noticed a deep fatal flaw in their plans. Being the fact that both of them were entirely naked under their armors. For the succubus, that would be relatively fine, just make her labeled as an exhibitionist but nothing that important. For the orodil, that small detail was important. His mask was built on the fact that people would ask to remove his helmet, not his entire armor. Meaning that he could have a normal human face with a blue body under it. Exchanging a gaze between each other, the two nodded and Meridiana apologized.
”Sorry, we have wasted your time, we will start at the bottom. Have a nice day.” They immediately left, letting the old man dumbfounded. From what he heard, they were totally fine with his menacing aura and without any fear. But, they still choose to not be evaluated, making him curious. Not pondering more about that, he returned to his seat and kept advising the other trainees, only getting a surprised glance from the disabled elder.
Returning to the receptionist, they were welcomed by a surprised audience. Many were murmuring that in the end, they were only show and no action because it was impossible for the trainer to be defeated so quickly. Jeering and mocking a bit the newcomers, the rest resumed their normal activities. Even the receptionist was slightly disappointed by the result but still received them warmly.
”That's fine, not everyone can beat him. But because you have no result, you can only start at the lowest grade, being A. Next, I will need your name and surname please.” The two only gave their names, since they only had one. That provoked some additional questions in the head of the receptionist, but that was not her job to ask them. Soon after, she gave them two small badges made of leather with three squares on it. Only the first one was filled with blue ink. Sensing their stares, the woman explained it.
”Because the three lowest grades are not really prestigious or even complicated to obtain, you don't get your official badge of an adventurer. In other words, since even kids like you can see over there can be of grade A, B or C, it would be too costly to create a proper badge for someone that could die in two days. It is a cruel way to see it but were are not charity. As for the rankings, it is easy, A is the lowest and Z is the highest. However, the current strongest adventurer is only classed as P. The same principle of the Magic Circles was applied, if you heard of them. The grade Z would mean that a being is as strong as one of the Dark Gods.”
The gorgeous female then turned around and pointed the two huge walls where most of the adventurers were next to. On it, countless papers were pinned on and some people were discussing with each other about them.
”You can now pick any request of level A to D over there. I won't get too much in the details, but most people need to complete at least one mission of a higher level before being able to change their grade. Also, when you want to pass from the probation adventurer that you are to a proper one, you will have to pay 2 gold coins. Don't worry, it is only a way to prevent unskilled people to obtain it. If you have the skill, you can easily get those coins in a few months by doing D-missions over and over.”
She finished her sentence and then harbored her most resplendent smile. ” I hope we will meet again very soon.”