Poisoned Rationality

Over the next week or so, I helped Ariana and Natalya work toward reaching Level 10. Becoming an adventurer and becoming part of the Guild required being Level 10.

Because I had reached Level 10 earlier, Stella and I were able to talk whenever. It was amazing to be in constant contact after so long.

After nine days, Natalya and Ari finally did it.

“Yes!” Ariana shouted, leaping into the air. “I made it!”

“Me too,” Nat said with a grin.

“Awesome!” I exclaimed. “Come on, let’s go get registered!”

The three of us headed back to town and found the local Adventurers’ Guild.

Inside the building, it was loud and crowded. The Guild’s building had merged with the inn next door, so the front room was a giant tavern.

Several of the guys knew me from around town and waved to me. I waved back as my friends and I walked up to the Guild employee at the front desk.

“Hello, what can I do for you today?” The young wendigo asked.

“We’d like to apply to the Adventurer’s Guild,” I replied.

“Alright, please go into that room,” The young woman said. She turned and pointed at a side room, where another Guild employee was sitting.

They led us through the process of becoming an Adventurer, which included recording our names and the type of fighting into a form.

After checking that our level was above 10, the man smiled and handed us our Guild cards.

“Thank you very much,” I said, taking mine.

“Have a good day,” The man said as we left.

We strolled through town, heading toward our favorite spot on the edges of the woods.

As we walked, we looked at our cards. Each one had our name, the guild we registered at, and our rank. All three of us were Copper rank, signified by the shiny copper color of the words showing our rank.

When we got to our spot, I stretched out on the fallen tree that I liked to rest on.

<I’m curious, why do you like that log so much?> Stella asked.

It’s comfy, I replied.

<It’s a log.> She pointed out.

A comfy log, I retorted with a grin.

“What are we going to do now?” Ariana asked. “I honestly never thought about what to do after we became adventurers.”

“Me neither,” Nat said, sitting down on a tree stump. Ariana leaned against the log I was lying on.

“I know we can accept quests to get rewards,” I told them. “We can also increase in rank.”

“That sounds boring,” Nat groaned. She idly began twisting a silk thread around her fingers.

“It’s not,” I said. “We can fight monsters for Subjugation quests, defend people during Escort quests, bring stuff to other people for Delivery quests, and very rarely, we can go on Tracking quests, where we find a person and bring them in for capture.”

“I guess that sounds kind of fun,” Nat muttered.

“When are we going to go on our first quest?” Ariana asked.

“We’ll have to get better gear first,” I replied. “Now that we’re full adventurers, we can buy better gear than before.”

<You’ll need another party member, won’t you?> Stella asked me. <You have a mage, a rogue, and a fighter, but you need a tank and a healer.>

“Ah,” I said.

“What?” Nat asked.

“Stella just pointed out that we need a tank for our party,” I replied. “We have a fighter, rogue, and mage, but no tank and no healer.”

“How do we find one?” Ariana wondered. “Do we just go walking around asking people?”

“No, we can put in a request at the guild,” Nat said. “My brother applied for one recently. He got accepted.”

“Let’s do that,” I suggested. “If we do it right now, we can buy our gear while we wait for applicants.”

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Ari agreed.

We got up and headed back into town and the Guild building. Once there, we talked to a Guild employee, who handed us the form to be filled out. Once it was done, we handed it back in, and they said it would be posted.

The form looked like this:

Party looking for a member:

Party Leader Name: ____________Nyxandria_______________

We’re looking for: _______A tank and a heakler______________

We currently have: _______ A mage, a rogue, and a fighter______

“Let’s get our gear situated now,” I said.

We went into the item shop and looked around at the items they had.

There was a large variety of different things, from daggers to food to alchemical ingredients to potions.

We got a bag to hold items, food, and potions, as well as two large backpacks with tents and other survival supplies for when we needed them.

Then we went to the gear shop.

They had various kinds of armor and weapons, although they were pretty expensive. We didn’t have a ton of coins, so we only bought the things we thought were necessary.

Ari got a simple dagger to go with the one she already had, a piece of leather chest armor, a set of wrist braces, and a forearm-sized blade.

Nat had gotten some copper-laced gloves, which would help her cast magic. The metal was useless for armor and weaponry, but it had a magic capacity much higher than any of the other low-level metals.

I had gotten a mostly complete set of leather armor, including a chest piece, greaves, and vambraces. Additionally, I got two blades the length of my forearm that I could wield in close combat.

After everything was done, the three of us went back to our homes. It was getting late, and we were tired after everything we’d done.

At home, I had a quick dinner with my parents before retiring to my room. I closed the door and very quickly undressed and put on my pajamas before flopping over on the bed.

<Tired?> Stella asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. In private, I usually talked out loud with her. When other people were around, I stuck to my thoughts. “Today was a long day.”

<I’m glad you’re figuring things out quickly,> Stella told me. <It means you’ll get going sooner, which means you’ll get to me sooner.>

“I love you,” I murmured, relaxing into the blankets.

<I love you, too,> Stella said, and I could hear her smile. <Sleep well.>

I smiled as I drifted to sleep.