UPDATE 9: Back at the workplace

After some time I arrived at the village around late afternoon….

The guards and Sam were surprised to see that I had so many wounds on my body and told me to go visit the hospital. Seriously just yesterday these people always have hard looks to me, but now they seem worried. Not that I dislike it, I'm starting to favor this town. I should probably enjoy that kind of behavior while I'm here.

I made my way towards the Adventurer's Guild and went through the entrance.

I didn't want to attract any attention to me, though unfortunately I did.

A man wearing a full set of plate armor without his helmet around 6 feet tall came in front of me. He looked to be in his early to mid thirties and had the same atmosphere as your regular school bully.

"Hey kid, you lost? This isn't the hospital."

"Oh, no. I came to claim my quest rewards for the day."

"Eh? You're an adventurer?"

"Um, Yes."

I was a bit confused where he was taking this conversation, but I understood in the next moment.

When he heard me he began laughing hysterically as if it was the best joke he ever heard, obviously he didn't believe me.

"You? An adventurer? Listen, just get out. Your wasting the guild's time and effort to make a guild card for a dead man. Heck you're already half dead as it is, your all torn to shreds and barely any equipment. What makes you think you're an adventurer?"

Oh god... Not that I give a damn about anything he is saying, but goddamn it's so annoying. I was about to show him my guild card, but I didn't want to press on any further with this. Slowly more and more eyes turned to us. I could already hear whispers from the crowd. Lets just get this over with.

"Is that all you have to say? If so I'll be passing by."

I went past him towards the reception table, but he grabbed my shoulder and made me stop.

"I'm not done with you yet-"

He was about to grab me until a woman in the same uniform as Stella interrupted him. She had a beautiful face, though the most noticeable feature is her long sharp ears.

I'm guessing she's a High Elf since they are the ones mostly seen around other races.

"Gregory what do you think you're doing? What have I told you about bullying others?"

"I wasn't bullying I was only giving some advice."

"I heard. Well, for your information this man was made an adventurer just 5 days ago. Zach show him your guild card."

I don't know who this person was, but she seems to be helping me so I'll play along. I took my guild card out of my pocket and showed it to him. He was shocked as well as some of the others in the room, though most of them were laughing silently.

"What?! This guy doesn't even have any proper equipment, and look at him now. How the hell is he fit to be an adventurer? He literally looks like shit."

He smirked before looking back at me. His face froze as he saw me rearing by blade full of bloodlust. His reflexes finally kicked in a few seconds after and reared back, but not before receiving a slash to his cheek. He fell to the ground as I pointed my sword towards him.

"Hey… what rank are you?"

"B-Bronze D Rank"

" You could have died there you know? I thought adventurer's are supposed to get better as they go through the ranks, are you really Bronze Rank? From my standpoint I'd say you're the one who looks like shit"

The crowd stared at the scene and began cheering me on.

"Haha, the new kid's got some backbone this time."

"Gregory's finally got a taste of his own medicine."

"Ya, hear that gregor? A toast to the newbie eh boys?"

I'm not a big fan of attention, but for things like this, it's more sweeter in front of a crowd.

They all laughed at him. He looked around and looked back to me furious.

"I'll show you-!"

He was about to grab his sword until an ominous aura was felt throughout the Guildhall, its origin Cera. Nobody moved a muscle as she smiled.

"No fighting in the Guildhall."

"Y-Yes. Forgive me."

It seems I was right, she does hold a lot of power here, everyone seems to both respect and fear her. At that moment I made a mental note not to cross this woman.

Her eyes narrowed further in annoyance before speaking to the bully.

"The adventurer guild takes anyone who can do a job. Though I do understand what you mean, the guild would at least make sure that a person would have proper equipment before joining, though the guild master was too late on that note. However even though he does look like this, he is here after his trips to the great forest day by day. That proves well enough that he is fit to be an adventurer just like the rest of you.

Everyone showed smiles as if proud of their profession and throwing mean comments at him. Gregory was placed into a corner by everyone around him that he didn't know what to say next.

"Cera you can't be serious!"

"By the way Gregory, if you can't even take on one of your juniors then perhaps you don't deserve your ranking, we can schedule a demotion."

The man named Gregory wasn't smirking anymore, he became worried and started to sweat bullets. It seems this person has a lot of power in this place, it even made me shudder.

"N-No! That's not what I-"

"Then take a seat."

Gregory showed a sour face then turned to me with narrow eyes of frustration and anger silently saying "I'll get you back for this." Though it seemed that others were pleased with these turn of events, doesn't seem to be the kind of guy that's favored by people.

I turned back to her. I should probably say my thanks...

"Um, thank you."

"Don't mention it. My name is Cera Anri, I am a High Elf. I'm the Guild Master's right hand. I must apologize for Gregorys behavior, he has a tendency of picking on the newcomers."

I'm not surprised. If I was the same as before I would have already beat him to a pulp for doing that. For now I should probably just ignore him.

"Stella told me about you when you took the quest this morning, she told me you had some unique equipment for a newbie, and seeing you now I honestly can't agree more."

"I don't really have enough money to buy proper equipment so…."

"Is that so. I heard you went on a Slash Rabbit hunt as part of your quest, but I can only think that you had it difficult this time."

"Well..."

Before I could complete my sentence Stella came out of a back door.

"Ah, Cera! Is there something wro- Zach! What happened to you!"

She had a shocked look on her face seeing my current state. I began scratching my cheek in nervousness of what to say next.

"Nothing much."

"Nothing much? You look terrible!"

She exclaimed similar to how a worried parent would react when their children get beat up by the local neighborhood bully.

I hate to admit it but she's right. It might not look too bad considering my HP loss during that fight and I could fairly say I avoided most of the hits, if it weren't for the metal sword I probably could have gotten out of there with less. My Vitality is pretty low making my healing slow as well and currently I have 39 HP. The wounds still hurt too, I've never felt this kind of pain since again there was never any pain in the original game, but now there is. I'm trying my best to be as composed as I can in front of her to not make her worried.

"It's fine."

I said as I held on one of the deeper cuts on my arm.

"I just came down to check on how things were doing, coincidentally I found your client being bullied."

"Eh?! Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine. Anyway I want to claim my quest and sell some monster parts."

She then gave of an aura of blood thirst as she scanned the area. Her eyes stopped at her target Gregory easily being the first suspect. Gregory began to sweat and avoid eye contact, I tried to look natural but even I was a bit frightened by her.

"Um, Stella…"

She then snapped back to reality realizing what she did and shook her head a couple of times to dismiss her worries trying to focus on her job.

"Ah, right. Your quest report please."

She then handed me a piece of paper that looked like an info sheet. This is essentially a way the guild can record one's findings during an adventurer's quest to add both portfolio and to overseer what's happening outside of the Guild. I filled it out best I could from what Latin I've learned so far, whilst talking to them.

"I'm curious, besides the lack of armor, what could have hurt you so badly? I know you went hunting slash rabbits and some other monsters in the forest, but Stella says you've been handling the same kinds of quests the last couple of days and have brought back similar items and remain barely wounded, so what happened today?"

"You'll find that out in the report."

Both of them began to read it and stopped as soon as they saw the word Goblin.

"Goblins?!"

"How were you able to kill five Goblins like that?"

Stella immediately became furious at me.

"Zach! I told you this morning not to rush didn't I?!"

"I didn't go out searching for them! They found me and well…"

Whispers began to circle around the guild. Everyone seemed as surprised as Cera and Stella was, the one who was most surprise was my bully looking at me with widened eyes. Everyone's ears became sharp to hear my reply to Cera's question, though I gave them a vague answer.

"I wouldn't say without any equipment. When I got in the forest I just made my own equipment like this knife."

I took the flint knife out of my pocket. Looking at their dumbfounded faces I don't think a lot of them thought this sort of weapon can kill anything, I can actually see expressions of amazement and disbelief coming from them.

"Quite resourceful of you, something a lot of our beginner adventurer's don't have nowadays."

Upon her statement, the newcomers who usually jeer at me had arrows piercing them.

Haha! That's what you get for making fun of me!

"Are you sure you're new to this? Seems like you handle yourself well despite all your inconveniences."

The rest continued to stay quiet and listen, but I could feel their eyes watching me trying to look through me and making conclusions as to my achievement.

"Is it really rare for a person to kill a couple of Goblins?"

"Even though Goblins are one of the lower creatures, they are still treated as fairly difficult to handle without sufficient experience most of are newbies are still recommended to avoid them until they are in Copper C Rank."

I see… If Goblins are able to come up with strategies like that then that ranking would be understandable. It makes me worried how many other monsters could be more difficult because of their raise in intelligence.

"You also mentioned you fought a Goblin Platoon Leader in your report, I assume that is where you found your sword. And were using a hi- and ru- strategy. Correct?"

"Hit and run, sorry I can't write that well yet. But yes."

Suddenly Lilith, with an exhilarated tone shouted out loud

"You killed a Goblin Platoon Leader?!"

Stella shout could be heard throughout the Guild's first and second floors, I'm not sure about the third, but I sure hope they didn't hear anything. The others on the first floor began reacting to the sudden discovery.

"What?!"

"Copper E rank killing a Goblin Platoon"

"Something's not right here."

I was already sweating and scratching my cheek from the pressure around me trying to keep my cool.

"Stella, don't shout."

"Y-Yes."

"Alright everything's in order. I assume you have things to sell don't you? Leave it to me I'll have someone appraise them for you."

"Eh? Cera, I'm sure you're busy. You don't need to do this."

"No it's alright. There is not a lot of work from the Guild Master so this is no problem."

"Thank you Cera."

"Can I also borrow your guild card please."

"Um, sure."

I took them all out and handed them to her.

"I'll be back shortly."

Cera then disappeared into a backdoor behind the desk. I'm hearing even more whispers behind me. My goal wasn't to attract attention it seems that isn't an option for me, at least it wasn't something too grand.

"Your really amazing don't you know Zach."

"Well I wish you wouldn't have announced it to everyone here."

"I was excited, I've never met someone like you before."

"You flatter me a bit too much. I'm really not all the same as how you see me."

"Then you better not betray my expectations."

I sighed at that comment then gave a smile after.

"I'll try not to."

Minutes later, Cera came back with a brown bag and my guild card.

"Zach here is your guild card and your payment. You are now Copper C rank."

Most of the people weren't surprised about this turn of events and have expected this to happen. I turned to my bully still in the corner mumbling stuff while looking at me with glaring eyes, it seems he's a bit salty as well as some others. Though there were still those who were slack-jawed about this coming from the youth's who looked almost the same age as I am or was though I did however see some expressions of amazement.

Sigh, I'm not really used to this kind of attention even if this is a different world. I can only make a sour face as I felt all the attention from the room target me.

Now I don't think it will be possible for me to have a low profile here in the guild anymore thanks to this incident... I snapped out of my depressed state and came back to reality.

"Well then, I guess I'll be heading off now."

"Go to the hospital alright? It would worry me if I keep seeing you like that any longer."

"Okay, Okay. I'll see you again tomorrow. Bye you two."

Both of the said their goodbyes as I walked out. I made my way to the hospital to get my wounds checked and went back to the inn.

That was some day huh?

I threw my stuff aside and as usual fell on my bed.

Well it was more fun than usual I guess. So does that mean I can go deeper into the forest now? I forgot to ask that. I got a good payday today, I should schedule a shopping trip soon.

My vision slowly went to my left hand. I wonder when I'll meet her again….

I watched the ceiling planning my next moves, as time past my eyes slowly drooped down and soon fell asleep for the rest of the night.

END OF UPDATE