YES! IT LIVES LIKE FRANKENSTEIN AND DRACULA! Insert spooky memes here.
So, I have been playing the Witcher 3 lately (Nintendo Switch version) and I got the inspiration to make this story with adventures/quest to be like the contracts style kind of stuff, just longer, and a bit harder to figure out, minus the straight 'Kill this beast' kind. I might even throw in some monsters from it, Interspecies version of course, for some ideas. I also started reading Konosuba fanfictions (the ones that have Aqua, the useless Goddess), and I realized I was setting the guild up kinda like those. I find it kinda funny that I did it, without meaning to. I also took an idea I already had but mixed it with a messier twist.
Stepping inside the building leads me to witness a scene of chaos, so to speak. The first thing I see is three guys arguing with an old man about something, the man backing away slowly with fear, while everyone else is trying to stop the fight, even the girls in the room. Then again, most of them look like they could lift the building with everyone inside without an issue.
Somehow, the three break out of the hold and go to punch the man. While I don't know how this started, I will end it. So I jump in front of them, and grab the guy in the middle, throw him against the guy to his right, and trip the guy to the left. By doing that, the rest of the room dogpile them, to make sure they can't do any more shit.
A couple of minutes of watching, the three get thrown out, and banned from the guild I guess. A member of the guild, an old man though it's hard to say what his age is, about six feet even, hair starting to gray, but with brown hair mixed in, with a build that seems to be in between a lean and muscular build, his eyes a dark gray with a strong tell of intelligence, walks up to me. "Thank you, sir, for helping us. While you didn't have to jump in, you did anyway. Though, I bet you came here to join our guild, am I correct?" The old man asks me, looking excited, and a bit hopeful.
I just look at him nervously. "Uh, yeah? I came to join your guild." I say, slightly off-put by the old man. He suddenly throws up his arms and yells out a cheer.
"ALRIGHT! WE LOVE NEW MEMBERS!" The old man shouts in joy, though something about the way he says it seems off, though the rest of the people in the guild celebrating in joy. One of them pulls out a giant barrel, filled with some weird liquid that has half of the people in the guild going up to him, with large glasses. Either they don't get many people to join, or they have a strong belief in treating people like family. Not sure honestly. The old man quickly calms down and looks at me. "Now, what is your name sir? We need it for the records to sign you with us." The old man says, with a calm tone, a total change from a second ago.
"My name is Link." I say, completely confused. Honestly, it confuses me on his reaction and sudden emotional changes. It must be normal, based on the fact that the rest of the members of the guild don't seem to notice. If I do end up staying like I think I will have to get used to the oddities of the group. The old man just nods his head in acknowledgment.
The old man just hums, jumping around me to inspect me, like he is looking for something. I just sigh, wondering what is the point of this, waiting for him to finish his odd inspection. "Hmm you seem to have the right build for the job, you are heavily armed, but your mentality might be a hindrance." He says, looking at me with a keen eye. What does he mean by 'my mentality might be a hindrance'?
"Regardless Link, if don't cause troubles for our guild by giving us a bad name you won't have any problems. Hell, you might fit in here, with the way you are set up. Follow me, I have a few questions for you, that I wish to ask in private." The old man says, motioning for me to follow him up a staircase that I missed when I entered, and we go up the stairs.
Following him up the stair, slightly creaking under our weight, I decided to ask a question. "Sir, if you don't mind answering this, what is your name?"
"Yamata, Link. My name is Yamata, the guild master of the Cat Tails." The now named Yamata chuckles.
"Cat Tails?" I say confused. Why name a guild Cat Tails? There might be a story behind this.
"Yes, and it's part of the reason why I wanted to talk to you in private, Link." Yamata says, not even turning his head to look at me. We continue walking down the hallway, turning at a few corners and going up another set of stairs, before finally reaching a door with a gold plate one it, that says 'Master Yamatas Office'. "Please Link, come in. Take a seat. I have questions for you, and I know you have some for me as well." He says politely, but I can tell it's more of a command right now. It's honestly jarring, his mood shifts. It's like he can't stay in one state of mind. His office is nice. He has two chairs, a desk, and a couple of plants in the corners of the room. The chair I go to sit in, is made out of wood with a leather covering, while his chair is slightly fancier. His desk is made out of a reddish wood, what it is, is hard to say.
A couple of minutes of silence passes, with us just looking at each other, until I decide to break the silence. "So, what is it you wanted to ask me, Mr. Yamata?"
"Are you from another world?" Yamata asks with a tone of neutrality, but his body paints a different emotion. It's hard to say what the emotion is though.
"Yes, I am from another world. Why do you ask?" I ask, curious yet slightly hesitant. Something seems off.
"Then why did you come here?" he asks, gaining a slight frown, a sure cry of his joy of a new member earlier.
"I came here because I heard a cry for help, and I couldn't just leave someone in need alone." I say, confused. Why does it matter why I came here? Maybe this world has had problems with people from out of this world?
"So you aren't here to 'free us' from the way our world works, and to put down what is seen as evil to others?" he asks, no longer frowning. That's an oddly specific question to ask.
"Uhh no? Unless it's a threat to innocent people or someone being a threat to the world, I wouldn't care, like an evil wizard wants to kill everyone for the hell of it for example." Confusion must be dripping from my voice, as his face gains a slightly surprised look at my answer.
"Well color me surprised. From the few out worlders I have dealt with, they all wanted to 'free' our world and make it less, in their words, immoral. Some of them were sent by their deities to ready this world, so they can have some influence here, some to 'help' this world, some to just fuck over the world for their amusement. The beings from other worlds tend to be... eccentric, compared to those of this world, so it's easier to identify them for me. I admit you seem honest in your intentions and beliefs, so I will give you more trust than other world beings that come through here. While most people in this world know of the outside worlders, they tend to get ignored, or in some cases treated with disdain, due to their righteous attitude. You just wish to help if needed, like helping an old lady cross the street to fighting a monstrous slime threatening a village, not changing the world in a way that suits your personal beliefs, correct?" Mr. Yamata asks politely, yet firmly.
His experience with other worlders has hardened him to deal with them, and make sure that they won't do something to ruin his guilds name. From the way he puts it, it makes sense. He doesn't want his guild to be associated with people who would cause problems in this world. Completely understandable. But his attitude about getting a new member still confuses me.
"So why did you seem so... excited to get a new member?" " I ask, slightly confused. I feel my ear twitch somewhat, which rarely happens when am confused. Which happens to be now. Yamata sighs, looking more like his old age from being asked that question. He taps his finger on his desk, I assume thinking of how to word his answer.
"Honestly, adventurers and bounty hunters are becoming rarer these days. Most people want jobs that require less danger, among things. Combined with the fact that out worlders have been popping up more recently, scaring off any potential adventurers and bounty hunters, it leads to an all-time low. That's a major reason for the excitement among the guild. It doesn't help that some out worlders have gotten themselves on the bounty list for crimes against multiple kingdoms, cities, and in one case, an entire continent. The Cat Tails guild happens to treat members like family. But when members betray us, it hurts more than you think. I want to help more people, but as I said, adventurers and bounty hunters are becoming dying professions due to the lower interest in it. Hell, two of our best adventurers and bounty hunters, Stunk and Zel, quit once they amassed a fortune, to use it on frivolous expenses among things. They were our faces of the guild at one point, even if their attitudes could have been a bit better. Knowing what you know now, do you wish to join us still? I wouldn't blame you if you decided to not join us, do to me interrogating you." Yamata says with a slightly apologetic tone, and his face portraying the same emotion.
It surprises me that there are other beings that can travel between worlds. While I am aware of the ability to, I come to the conclusion that the Lost Woods is just one of many ways to travel between worlds and universes. I assumed that the Lost Woods was the only way, but I guess it is just one of many to do it. Maybe it's just my way because I grew up in a forest, so I can navigate a place like the Lost Woods super easily. I do remember that Ganondorf banished Phantom Ganon to the 'gap between dimensions', which I assumed was just an empty space, but thinking on it now, it could be a way to transverse between time periods, worlds, dimensions, among things. I wouldn't be surprised honestly.
I think for a minute if I still want to join their guild. While I may have been turned off a little by Yamata switching through emotions like the way he did, and his unofficial interrogation, while it makes sense it is slightly frustrating and a bit of a turn off to joining. But I need more information about how adventuring works in this world, and how bounty hunting works here. What are the ranks of both, and what they represent among things? One of the things I learned from my experiences, is that information is key.
"Before I do give my answer to joining, I need some clarification on a few things. What are the ranks for adventurers and bounty hunters? What kind of quests and missions do they tend to have, and are there any concerns I should have when in either?" I ask Yamata, who just chuckles at the question, though I can tell it is a half-hearted chuckle.
"There are ten ranks among adventurers, and five bounty hunter ranks. For adventures, it goes Bronze, Copper, Silver, Graphite, Crystal, Jade, Ruby, Diamond, Gold, and Platinum. Bronze is the lowest, and Platinum is the highest ranking for adventurers. These ranks also affect quest ranks, saying the minimum rank you need to be in order to go on the quest. The higher the rank, the more dangerous it is. For example, a Bronze rank quest will entail you either slaying weak monsters, dealing with a group of weak bandits, or delivering a simple item. Though, some of them have a chance to encounter a rookie killer, which is a dangerous beast, as it groups up weaker monsters to lure out easy prey. A Platinum quest, for example, can be an escort mission for the current leader of the country, as the quest can have serious consequences if failed, and with extreme dangers involved with it, or having a quest to slay a group of nesting dragons, that are destroying a neighboring city. All adventurers start at Bronze ranking, regardless of past experience. Though, the experience can let you reach a higher rank quickly, allowing you to get better quests faster." Yamata stops speaking to take a drink of water from a carrier that he kept in his desk. He then clears his throat, to regain his voice.
"Anyway, Bounty hunting is different from adventurers in a sense. The ranks for them are based not on metals or gems, but creatures, not their succ-girl counterparts, but the actual creature, though that topic will be branched on shortly. It's kinda complicated. Slime, Imp, Demon, Salamander, and Dragon. Slime ranked bounty hunters are comparable to Bronze ranking adventurers. An Imp rank Bounty hunter is comparable to a Silver adventurer, Demon to Crystal rank, Salamander to Ruby rank, and Dragon to Gold rank. Bounty Hunters have a rule set they follow, at least the legal ones. They can't be hired to assassinate political figures, without a VERY good reason and plenty of evidence to back up why, for example. Other than that major restriction, bounty hunters do what they do best. Hunt down bounties. Of course, there are two types of bounty hunters, legal and illegal bounty hunters. Legal bounty hunters are those who are signed up in a guild, and the government knows of them, while illegal bounty hunters are people who for one reason or another, do their hunting illegally, and because of the lack of paperwork on them, they can assassinate anyone and not be known who it was. They are rarer though, but they are a very legitimate threat to the governments of the world and the common person. Because of this, they are among the most wanted among the government's criminal lists. While rare, legal bounty hunters are tasked with hunting them down, and either capturing or killing them because they are a threat to the world. You understand so far, Link?" Yamata asks, taking a drink of his canteen.
I shuffle in my seat at this point. I understand what he says, it's just a surprise that Bounty Hunters are regulated like that. Then again, letting people have a position of next to no consequences, it makes sense to make sure they have a rule set to prevent people who believe that their choices are always right. So to prevent bounty hunters from being too powerful and dangerous, they need to have some rules and regulations to prevent the bounty hunters from killing a leader they just don't like for no reason or a bounty that can destabilize an entire region. Makes sense to me, to an extent. "Yeah, I understand so far sir."
"Great! Now, for the topic that's more... Complicated." At that, Yamata hesitates and takes a drink of his water. "Now, as you are aware, there are monsters and Succ-girls. But Succ-girls have two classifications: Civilized and Uncivilized. Monsters are a clear explanation of what they are. Civilized Succ-girls are quite obvious, succ-girls that live among society with control over their... instincts." Yamata hesitates again, clearly nervous about what he has to say next. "An Uncivilized succ-girl on the other hand, are akin to monsters, but instead of trying to kill you, they want to... How do I put it?" Yamata seems to be conflicted about this next part. "They tend to kill female adventurers or... Rape male ones, if given the opportunity. They even kidnap male adventurers they gain a liking to, and keep them as sex slaves." Yamata finishes quietly. My silver ring started heating up, not burning or anything like that, but I could tell that if it was a Hylian, it would have a pissed off expression.
I wonder, what is Rape and what is a Sex Slave? Though, based on his tone, not good things I am willing to bet. Sometimes I hate the fact I was raised by the Kokiri. While I love them like siblings, they were kids separated from the rest of the world at the end. Asking seems like a good idea on paper, but something tells me that if I were to ask, it wouldn't go well. I decide to stay quiet, figuring if it was seriously important, he would have explained it.
"Now that I have explained it, do you have any other questions? Yamata asks quietly, almost like he was saddened by the topic he had to speak of.
Now I feel bad. I didn't know such a topic could lead to him getting upset. I couldn't at the minimum. He must have lost quite a few adventurers this way. Adventuring is a dangerous job to take. While I understand the dangers of both jobs, I am fine with them. I then think, if bounty hunters have a regulated ruleset, do Adventurers have a rule set? "Yeah, Bounty Hunters have a rule set, do Adventurers have a rule set?"
Yamata thinks for a minute, thinking of how to answer that. Then he looks up, though you can tell he is still sad about the previous topic. "Yes, you can't kill fellow Adventurers, self-defense is the exception, or break into people's houses and destroy their furniture for instance. Like I said about quests, you can only do quests of your rank and below due to risks being higher than what we believe is above your ability to handle, a generalization of course, and some quests require you to either be in a group, or to accept no matter what, but that one is extremely rare, and usually an insanely important level quest. Though those are usually given to the highest rank, and some of the second-highest rank. Again, they are insanely rare, and among my time as a guild member/leader, I have only witnessed five of them, and I have been in charge for the past seventy years. But for the most part, Adventurers have to follow the laws of the country their in. Other than that, the ruleset is what the government lays down, and enforces. Though, if you are both a bounty hunter and Adventurer, you follow the rule set based on the job/quest you are taking." Yamata explains, cheering up slightly at the topic change, with a different set of memories to look at, at least I believe so.
"Thank you for answering the few questions I had Mr. Yamata." I say as politely as I can.
"It's no problem. It is part of the job after all." Yamata chuckles slightly. "Do you wish to join still, or have you changed your mind?" he asks, curious and hopeful.
"I... I would like to join your guild as both an adventurer and as a bounty hunter." I say, making Yamata brighten up considerably. He then pulls open a drawer and brings out some paperwork.
"Excellent! Now, these two sheets of paper are for information relevant about you, height hair and eye color, age, among things. It's registration paperwork, acting as an agreement with the guild, and the government to follow the rules and laws of being an adventurer, and a Bounty Hunter." He says, guiding me through the process. Oddly enough, when I went to right my hair and eye color, for some reason I wanted to put down auburn hair and silver eyes, rather than blond hair and blue eyes. It could be nothing, though the silver ring of mine tends to act up for some reason, from time to time.
Filling out the paperwork takes about ten minutes, as it is simple after all. With it filled out, I am now both an Adventurer and a bounty hunter.
"Now Link, there are two places for you to look for jobs and quests. The quest board in the main room of the guild or the Ale n Eats board across the street. Be aware of the rank stamp on them, of course.
With that in mind, you are now an official Adventurer and Bounty Hunter of the Cat Tails Guild! Welcome aboard!" Yamata yell happily, handing me a necklace with a bronze plate on it, and a badge with a blob, I assume to be slime, on it. "These are your ranks. Always keep them on you, they are your identification for being an Adventurer and Bounty Hunter. Never take them off, and never give them to someone else. Understood?" Yamata asks.
"Yes, Mr. Yamata!" I respond with, a little louder than I meant. He just chuckles at that.
"Now, since it's your first day, you should speak to our receptions, Ms. Carline. She will give you your first quest. Normally, you have to find one yourself but firsties always get their first quest, to wet their feet, so to speak. Good luck, and come back unharmed." Yamata says, before escorting me to Ms. Carline.
Ms. Carline seems to be a human-cat hybrid, with cat ears and a cat tail, but the rest of her is human. She looks to be about in her early twenties. She just looks at me and grins slightly for some reason. "So you're the new member of the guild, Link correct?" She says, her voice slightly higher pitched than I expected. It kinda reminds me of Navi honestly. Another thing I noticed, is that her counter is very organized and clean, more so than Mr. Yamatas desk. It's so clean, that I am sure you could eat off it, with no plate.
"Yes, I am Link. I came here to get my first quest." I answer honestly. Carline just chuckles at my response, turns around, and bends down to grab something. A couple of Adventurers around gain a strange look, akin to Stunk and Zels odd looks they gained. My ring starts to heat up slightly, and I feel like punching them in the face for some reason. It's odd, that I feel this way.
Carline, finding the quest she was looking for, stands back up, looking at me, though she seems a bit surprised about something. Strange, honestly. Was she expecting some sort of response from her bending over to grab a quest sheet?
"Well, your first quest is simple Link. The nearby forest has recently had problems with slime attacks, and it's causing problems for those who walk the trails. You are to slay the offending slimes and return with evidence that they were slain. a blob of their goo will work." She reads the quest.
"Understood. I will go deal with them." I say, accepting the quest. She hands me a sheet of paper, with some information on it. The north route out of the city is the forest location.
Leaving the guild building, I head towards the cities northern gate, to handle the quest I was given, and slay the trouble-making slimes.
Alright, so I originally planned to include the actual quest in this chapter, but I felt that it was too much of a shift in many ways, so I decided to save it for the next chapter. It was a little much for this chapter.
I made a character sheet for Yamata and Carline, to give a better idea of them. Magic Potential has four, technically five tiers.
Magicless (Self-explanatory)
Wizard/Witch (Able to use most lower-tier magic spells, and some mid-tier with no problem.)
Mage (Can use All lower tier, mid-tier, and some High tier level magic spells)
Sorcerer (Can use all magic tier spells, that aren't limited to succ-girls or racial specific.)
Succ-girl
The only one that kinda is a technical, is Succ-girl. Their magic is mainly used for sex purposes, so it's useless in combat, with one magic spell exception. Arousal. It can make an opponent aroused, usually driving them nuts. A skilled Succ-girl is able to make most people surrender with a single casting of it. Other than that, the Succ-girl tier exists on its own, technically.
Character sheets for Yamata and Carline
Mr Yamata:
Occupation: Cat Tails Guild Leader
Age: 105
Race: Human
Skin Color: Tanned
Weight: 200 lbs, with a lean body build
Height: 6 feet tall
Hair Color: Brown, with some gray starting to mix in
Eye Color: Dark Gray
Magic Potential: Mage
Adventurer Rank: Platinum
Quests completed:
Bronze: 300,000
Copper: 290,000
Silver: 250,000
Graphite: 200,000
Crystal: 100,000
Jade: 10,000
Ruby: 5,000
Diamond: 2,000
Gold: 1290
Platinum: 300
Mr. Yamata in his early days was a powerful adventurer. Akin to Stunk and Zel in his glory days, he was one of the most powerful and well-respected adventures of his time. He was responsible for many adventurers gaining access to new types of quests and happens to love Teriyaki, the spicier, the better.
He has witnessed quite a few events, including the Uncivilized Succ-girl Migration, which was a less than pleasant event for most adventurers, with quite a few being taken as sex slaves or raped on the spot. Due to witnessing those events, he has gained a slight fear for new adventurers being potentially targeted like the adventurers who were during the Migration. He has also witnessed a few teams of his suffering less than pleasant fates, leading to him having a fear of succ-girls, to an extent. These events also lead him to be more eccentric, causing him to have unexpected mood swings.
While he is fine with civilized succ-girls, Uncivilized Succ-girls tend to make him enter a fight response, leading to unfortunate, or fortunate to some, ends to them.
When he was still in his prime, he had the nickname Dragon Slayer, as an emergency quest he had to go on, had 300 Dragons rampaging across the entire Continent, Garzel (Think of South America in terms of size) and successfully slew them. After that quest, he was considered the strongest Adventurer to come from the Cat Tails Guild before Stunk and Zel joined.
Ever since he became the guilds leader twenty years ago, he has lead the Cat Tails Guild to new heights, until Stunk and Zel left the guild ten years ago, and adventuring lost its appeal to the average person, instead of focusing on other things, and letting monsters grow in strength, numbers and even species.
He has hope that Link can help reawaken the interest in adventuring to people again, and help the world become a place that's safer, though has his doubts about Links honesty with some of the questions.
Ms. Carline:
Occupation: Cat Tails Guild Leader
Age: 30
Race: Cat Girl
Skin Color: Pale
Weight: Don't Ask (120 pounds. Wait how did you get in he- OH SHI-)
Height: Five foot Nine Inches
Hair Color: Red hair
Eye Color: Red
Breast Size: DD Cups
Magic Potential: Succ-girl
Adventurer Rank: Unranked
Quests Completed: None
Carline is the Cat Tails quest giver(for those newbies and the ones bringing a quest paper to say they are taking it)/receiver and is the current mascot of the guild. She is the receptionist of the Cat Tails Guild and a Succ-girl, obviously. While weaker than a Bronze ranking Adventurer, she is still a threat if pissed off with her natural weapons, and the Guild backing her up when needed. Though she isn't arrogant or egotistical enough to depend on it, she can cause some problems by herself.
She used to be an Uncivilized Succ-girl before she was able to push her instincts away to become a civilized Succ-girl. Though, cases like hers are absurdly rare, which makes her all the more unique. While she was one of the Uncivilized succ-girls before, she never tried to rape the men she encountered, because she had better control than others like her. This let her become a Civilized succ-girl much easier than expected.
Strangely enough, she hates the color blue, though it's not known why. She is a bit of a neat freak, preferring her area of work to be clean and organized, compared to most Cat Girls, who are lazy and really don't care about their environment, unless it is a brothel, for obvious reasons.
She's fully aware that most of the guild thinks she is hot as hell and enjoys it. Though, she was confused when Link had no reaction to her at all.
Her favorite food is Salmon stripes with some cut potatoes on the side.
A couple of her biggest flaws is her inability to accept when she is wrong, and her stubborn mentality, a by-product of her pushing past her instincts as a former Uncivilized Succ-girl.
She has a strange attraction to long-eared men, especially elves.
I originally didn't plan on having people from the outer worlds (or Iskaei people) be in the story, or even referenced. But I got the idea of a potential few quests/hunts for the future, that and I felt that it could be a good way to give an idea on how the world works.
I want to clarify, this is the final prologue chapter, so I hopefully won't do an info dump chapter for a while (My plan with quests, should make it take a while for the next info dump chapter).
I did plan on having this chapter be a bit longer, but I felt at least getting this finished, looked at, and done would be better as a way to finish the setup. Next will be 100% an actual 'Quest' Chapter for Link!
I want to thank all those who follow, favorite, and review for giving this story a chance/checking out and wish you all a great day. I am honestly surprised that this story got the traction it has gotten. Again, thank all of you.
EDIT: I realized I made a mistake and came to fix it. Don't worry folks, chapter five is in the works.