“Here it is, the classic guild every other worlder goes to.”

  “Aha.”

  “Hope there isn’t a bunch of drunks ready to beat me and put me in a jar. You know that’s one of my all time top fears.”

  I walked right in as Mel trailed behind. First I had to become a real adventurer. There was a brown haired girl in a green uniform behind the reception counter, so I walked over to her.

  “Welcome back to the guild! What brings you here today?”

  “I’d like to sign up to become an adventurer.”

  “Oh my mistake! I thought you were already one…”

  “That’s called selling the part.”

  I reached into my storage and fished out the gold coins I stored.

  “Haha, well first you have to pay the fee of 5 silver, then-”

  I placed it on the counter.

  “Sorry but we don’t have change, sir.”

  “That’s fine. Consider it a tip.”

  “Well thank you. I’ll get started right away then.”

  She reached under the counter and took out a small blue crystal ball as well as a blank card. I then put a hand on the crystal.

  “I see you already know how it works.”

  “Yeah, I’ve done it before.”

  The crystal glowed brighter until the receptionist placed the card onto it, in an instant the glow transferred to the card.

  “Alright, it’s done!”

  She handed the card to me, now with my name and level on it.

  “Right now it says your rank is U, meaning unranked, but next we need to assess your skills to see what rank you should really be in.”

  “Alright, I’ll be in the training room.”

  “The trainer said he’ll be here shortly, so just wait in the…”

  I made my way towards it while ignoring the drunks waving to me. The guild was a huge place fit to be in this city, there were multiple floors housing everything from a tavern on the ground floor to countless meeting rooms and even an in-house training room. I stopped outside the door.

  “Hey! Are you here for the rank test?”

  A muscular man with white hair, wolf ears and a scarred but relatively young looking face stomped over.

  “That’s me.”

  I showed him my new guild card which he took a look over.

  Adventurer Identification

  Level 16: Rein

  Rank: U

  “Only level 16…”

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  He seemed displeased.

  “...Rein ay, nice to meet you buddy!”

  He reached out his hand in greeting, which I shook. During this I could feel the pressure he was putting on for the newbies. As if to deter people whose hearts were not in it, people who could get hurt easily. The receptionist girl from before ran up with a notepad in hand.

  “Rein was it? Today we’ll be seeing what rank you’ll start at through a one on one fight. This is Alphonse, a veteran at our guild, he’s a rank A and level 52, so he SHOULD know what he’s doing.”

  He chuckled back at her.

  “Haha, I always know what I’m doing, Sherry.”

  She came up to me and whispered in my ear.

  “Just from me to you, be careful, he never goes easy on anyone… I’ll be taking this.”

  She grabbed my guild card and stored it away, then opened the door with a key and ushered us inside.

  “The ranks go from F to S, depending on skill.”

  The room looked like an average forest, with trees, uneven ground, but clear defined walls.

  “For instance a rank F could relatively easily defeat a slime, while a rank S could do the same to a dragon.”

  “I’ve killed a Level 22 forest dragon before, not to intimidate you or anything!”

  “Yeah, with the rest of your party doing all the work.”

  “Don’t tell him that!”

  I followed Alphonse to the center of the room while Sherry stayed at the doorway.

  “Anyway, just try your hardest and I’ll grade you on your score. Don’t worry about any damage to the room, it’s made with magic so we can just poof it back to normal at any time… Oh yeah, to yourselves too, we have healing magic.”

  “Don’t hold back now Rein, come at me as hard as you can!”

  “If you say so…”

  “Alright, on my count… 3…”

  I unsheath my sword and get up a defensive stance.

  “2…”

  Alphonse takes his longsword out from his back and holds it casually.

  “1…”

  He grips the sword even harder.

  “GO!”

  With a burst of speed he slashes my shoulder, which I parry off to the right. I don’t have the stats to block a hit from someone triple my level, so the best I can do is use his momentum against him. He slams the longsword back up at my face while I duck and slash towards him. He instinctively jumped back while I went on the aggressive. If even parrying I could barely pull off, I just had to not get in a situation where I had to.

  “Sacred water strike!”

  I striked forward with all my might while he stood back and slashed back at the same time. Even my most powerful attack was on the level of an even blow, but that was by far enough.

  “Strike!”

  I chained it with another attack from above, which he also blocked but this time was pushed back slightly.

  “Strike!”

  They say the best defence is the best offense, in this case it was true, if I let up for a second, I would already be dead.

  “Strike!”

  He was certainly taking these well, it was only a matter of time I ran out of stamina.

  “Strike!”

  I couldn't help but smile.

  Achieved title: Sacred Water Student

  Medium-Level Sacred water strike -> Medium-Level Sacred water arts

  “Slash!”

  I hit him with twice the force he was used to.

  “Slam!”

  To his surprise, I chained an even harder attack from above, slamming him to the floor. I jump back to see a kick where I just was.

  “A rank A… Wouldn't go down… So easy…”

  He sat up and seemed to shake.

  “Wait Alphonse! You’re going to kill him!”

  “Rein won’t die from this… He’s still holding back now…”

  In reality, I was already pushing my limits.

  “If I stop now, you're going to give him rank C, right?”

  “Yes?... Wait, don't!”

  “Well here’s your chance kid, show her.”

  “Thanks, Al.”

  The air seemed to grow restless around him while Sherry was looking more and more terrified.

  “Great ancestors… I beseech you…”

  There was now a green glow around him as he was oozing out mana.

  “Lend me your power…”

  He got more and more hunched over until his hands reached the floor.

  “Forest spirit… The great beast…”

  His speech gradually got more beast-like as the air turned to a mist around him.

  “ZARWOOOOO!”

  In one howl the air was clear. I was face to face with the incarnation of a piece of the forest spirit's will.

  “I’LL GO GET HELP!”

  As Sherry ran out the room, the glowing green wolf locked eyes with me.