“How can I help you today?” the receptionist asked as Sam stepped forward towards the counter. The receptionist looked to be in her late teens and had long brown hair tied back into a ponytail. She had dark green eyes and freckles dotting her nose. Sam looked down and read the name tag ‘Henrietta’. “Hello, I would like to register with the guild please” Sam replied after giving the receptionist a quick once over. “No problem, please fill out this form” she said passing a form on a single sheet of paper over to him along with a quill and an inkwell.
Sam completed the form and passed it back to Henrietta. She took the form from him with a quick “thank you” and placed it onto a magic scanner similar to the one they had at the academy’s reception desk. The scanner lit up for a few seconds before going dim again. Henrietta removed the form and placed it down in front of her before she placed another device, that looked similar to the magic scanner except this time it was shaped like a handprint, down on the reception desk in front of him. “Please place your hand on this scanner. It will scan you and take down some basic information including your general level” she said. Sam placed his right hand on the scanner. As he did it lit up glowing a bright blue. “Alright please remove your hand from the scanner” she requested. Sam removed his hand after around five seconds and the blue light faded. When she placed the scanner back down behind the reception desk a soft yellow light began to shine before quickly fading a second later.
A moment later she passed him a card from where the light had shone from, his adventurers’ guild card to be exact. “This card has your guild rank on it and can be used as identification when entering towns and cities. Please keep this card in a safe place as if you lose it you will have to pay for another to be issued to you” she said. “Okay, thank you for your help” Sam said as she gave him a smile. “Is there anything I can help you with?” she asked him. “No, that’s all for now” Sam said as he left the reception desk and walked over to where Albert was waiting.
“All done?” Albert asked as he approached. “Yes, got my guild card here” Sam said flashing the Copper Card towards him. “Same” Albert said tapping his card to Sams. As they waited for the other members of their party to finish registering Sam took a look at his guild card. It was copper in colour and likely made from copper or a copper alloy also. The card has lettering etched into it giving off a slightly magical sheen. At the top of the card it said “Adventurer’s Guild Membership Card” inside a box. Then underneath Sam read out the information on the front of the card. Name: Samuel Holdridge, Species: Human, Guild rank: G, Membership ID number: GKB-006015892 and registration date which was today’s date 04/10/12076.
Sam flipped the card over to get a look at the back of it. On the back at the top of the card, it had his guild rank progress. Rank Progress was written along with a 0 then an empty bar that Sam assumed would fill up as progress was made and then a 10 at the end of the bar. He assumed this showed 0 G rank quests completed out of 10 required for him to rank up. Other than that, there was a crest which matched that of the one above the reception desk which Sam assumed was either the adventurer guild crest or the guild branch crest. He assumed this was used to verify the legitimacy of the card. Sam decided that he would ask the professor afterward about it as now clearly wasn’t the time he thought as he looked up to see Alice and Chloe walking over to join them.
After about thirty minutes all the students had successfully registered with the guild and were awaiting their next instructions from the professor. “Alright students now listen up. I want each party leader to come and grab one of these party registration forms. Once you have your form please take a seat at one of the tables and fill it out before returning it to the reception desk. Once they have processed your form all members of the party will be called over to complete the registration. Once you are registered please wait here again until everyone has completed the registration process. Does anyone have any questions?” the professor asked. Once again no one raise their hand “alright party leaders come over and grab a form” the professor instructed.
Albert left the group and returned with a blank form which they took over to the closest empty table, where they all took a seat. Sam leaned over to get a better look at the form. At the top of the form, it said Adventurer’s guild party registration form. Underneath that there was a space for you to write in the party’s name. After that there were 15 spots for you to write the name, member number and rank of the members you wanted to have in the party.
Albert filled out the party name before adding his information at the top of the members list. Once Albert had finished filling out his part he passed the form around so each member of the party could fill out their information. Sam was the last to receive the form filling out the required information and passing it back to Albert who gave it a once over to ensure we hadn’t missed anything before he got up and took it over to the reception desk.
It wasn’t long after Albert had returned to the table that the receptionist called the party over. “Can you all please place your guild cards on the below magical tray with the party leaders card sitting on the spot on top?” the receptionist asked them. Sam placed his card in the first spot underneath Alberts card. The receptionist took the magical tray and placed it onto the magical scanner device. Sam still wasn’t really sure what they were, but they seemed to be used for a lot of different things. The scanner lit up before each of the guild cards began to glow. The glow died down a moment later and their guild cards were returned to them. Sam took a look at his card after picking up off the tray. There were no changes to the front but there was something added on the back. At the bottom of the card in the left-hand corner was written “Party: The Star-Scythe Dawnbearers 2/5”.
“What does the three of five mean?” Darren asked the receptionist. “The three of five is to indicate that you’re the third member out of five members of your party” the receptionist explained. “I see, thank you” Darren replied as they all took another look at the inscription. Sam and his party moved back from the reception desk and back over to their table as they made way for one of the other parties. The whole process took another 15 minutes before all of the parties were finally registered.
The professor returned from the staff only door with what Sam could only describe as a very beautiful woman. All the boys looked at her as she approached them. “Okay, now that you’ve all registered your parties we are going to do a bit of an information session before a tour of the building and its facilities. This here is Seraphine Vale the Vice Guild Master of the Galadian Royal Capital Branch of the Adventurers guild who will be our host this afternoon. Seraphine can you please introduce yourself to these rookie adventurers?” the professor asked. Sam looked at the woman as she stepped forward to speak. She was a fairly tall woman who looked to be in her late twenties. She had silver-white hair tied into a loose braid coming down the front of her shoulder. She was wearing a silver coat with a crest on the left-hand side. Under the coat she was sporting a white shirt with a lilac ribbon and a black skirt. She had long brown boots just short of her knees.
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“Good afternoon rookies. My name is Seraphine Vale and I’m the Vice Guild Master of the Galadian Royal Capital Branch of the Adventurer’s Guild. I was one of the founding members of the Oathbound Wardens before it was disbanded and an S rank adventurer” there were a few gasps as she introduced herself. Even Sam was aware of who the Oathbound Wardens were and the story as to what happened to them. She was the Silver Warden the primary attack magic user of the Oathbound Wardens.
“Now if you could please follow me” Seraphine said as she led the way towards the room with the image of the 4 people on the sign above it. As they entered the room Sam finally realized what the symbol was for. It was a classroom. One person standing in front of those being taught. It was quite obvious now Sam thought as he took a seat alongside his party members.
The Vice Guild Master took her position at the front of the classroom with Professor Voss pulling up a chair to sit just off to the side.
“To start off we will be going over some of the basic rules of the guild. The first and most important rule is that killing other members of the guild is strictly forbidden outside of self-defense. There are many conflicts between guild members and fights are a common occurrence however killing one another is not allowed. Second to that, there is to be no fighting within the guild building. Sparing is allowed in the training ring out the back or in the other training facilities but any combat outside of designated areas is forbidden. If you break this rule you could be fined, demoted, suspended or expelled from the guild” she said pausing to allow a moment for the warning to sink in. “The next rule is about quests. All quests taken must either be completed or formally relinquished. If you take a quest but cannot complete it you must go through the relinquishing process. This includes a detailed report as to why you could not complete the quest. Next, extra payments made by the quest giver must be recorded when reporting a quest’s completion. This includes any extra money, items or equipment directly given to you for completing the quest. This does not include items looted from defeated monsters or other opponents during the quest. All injuries sustained during the quest must be reported upon completion of a quest. If an injury is deemed to have been caused by an incorrect quest ranking or due to a lack of information provided with the quest you may be compensated by the guild. The final rule I will cover, although there are many more that you read in the rules and regulations book available at all adventurers’ guild branches, is that Civilians are not collateral. You must minimize harm to civilians and prevent any unnecessary destruction of property. The use of civilians as a distraction or shield will result in immediate expulsion from the guild” Seraphine instructed. “Now, does everyone understand these rules?” she asked them. “Yes, Vice Guild Master” they all replied. “Good now we’ll move on to some information about your guild cards”.
“The guild card has many uses. It is used as identification primarily as well as keeping track of your rank progress. Your guild card is keyed to your mana so that if in the hands of someone else the text won’t have the slight glow to it that it does in yours. Now, as you may see on the back of your guild card is the crest of the guild branch. This crest is used to verify the authenticity of the guild card and has a unique signature for each card which is registered with the guild world over. As well on the back of the card at the top is your rank progress. When you complete a quest the progress bar will fill and once full you will be eligible to go through the rank up procedure” she explained.
“The next thing to note is the colour and material of your guild card. Starting at G rank your guild card is made of copper. As you rank up your card will be replaced with one of the next rank. F is iron, E is bronze, D is Silver, C is gold, B is mithril, A is Orichalcum and S and above is Adamantite” she explained.
“You must make sure you keep your guild card on you at all times not just for identification but also because of what else in needs to be used for. Your guild card must be presented when accepting a quest, checking out specialized equipment, using a guild teleportation circle and accessing restricted areas. Along with all of that, your card is also used to check into branches. This helps us track travelling adventurers and to know where their last locations were if they are to disappear. There is a check-in scanner next to the entrance of every guild building on the continent which must be scanned when entering and exiting the building. The card will also be linked with your dungeon diving guild card when you acquire it which will tie in with rank progression on the dungeon diving card as well as for authentication’s sake” she explained.
“Now there are a few final things I want to go over before we start the tour. These are important so please pay close attention” Seraphine said in a more serious tone. “Remember your party, don’t act alone and put the rest of your party at risk by doing so. Stay together and communicate clearly do not assume that another member of your party is handling a threat without confirming with them. This is one of the largest causes of death in parties for rookie adventurers. Secondly, know the quest. Study all information provided when you accept the quest. Learn about the environment and the monsters and animals known to be in the area. Have a plan to escape and have a meet up point for if you get separated. Thirdly remember that monsters aren’t the only dangers. Terrain kills, weather kills, hunger and exhaustion kills, poison kills and panic kills. Remember that a goblin with a rusty knife is less of a danger than a cliff you didn’t see. Four, check your gear and check it again. Test your weapons and check them for damage, take stock of your potions and other consumables, ensure you have rations in excess as you don’t know how long you could be away from a town if something was to go wrong. Also make sure your equipment fits. A loose boot strap or a missing potion can turn a simple quest into a tragedy. Five, retreat is not failure. A lot of rookie adventurers refuse to retreat when they have no chance of winning as they don’t wish to fail but the true failure is not returning alive. If a quest turns out to be more than anyone of your rank can handle report it to the guild immediately so they can reissue it at an appropriate rank. Six, fear is natural, but panic is deadly. All adventurers feel fear, both rookies and veterans. Stay calm and do not panic, if you feel panic starting to set in remember to breathe, ground yourself and go over your training. Panic will kill you. Seven, respect the unknown. If something feels wrong stop, observe and reassess. Remember that curiosity without caution is how adventurers vanish into caves that weren’t on their maps” she said taking a pause to allow everyone to take it in.
“Eight, report everything when you return. Even minor details matter, especially if more quests come in for similar things in the same area. Your reports can keep future adventurers alive” she said with a sad expression. “Now we have gone over all of that, how about we get our tour underway” Seraphine exclaimed with a bright smile.
