"You do not have a rank?" Ely asked again, her voice pitching up as if trying to make absolutely sure she understood what she had just heard.
The heavy, putrid smell of the trapped slimes still lingered in the warm air of the shop, but the young merchant’s focus was now entirely on the tall, pale customer standing before her scratched wooden counter.
Lucious kept his silence for a long while, his glowing crimson eyes carefully scanning her confused expression.
He was rapidly trying to find the best, most inconspicuous way he could answer her question without revealing the dark reality of his otherworldly origins.
He had no idea how human society functioned in this kingdom, let alone the specific laws governing monster hunting.
’Do I need to?’ he finally asked, his voice completely flat and devoid of any human embarrassment.
Ely’s jaw practically dropped. She stared at him for a solid five seconds before throwing her hands up in the air in pure disbelief.
"Well yes you do? Duh? What the hell? Wait, hold on, are you even an adventurer?" she rapid-fired, leaning over the counter and squinting at his ruined clothes.
"..."
"..."
Ely let out a long, exhausted sigh, gripping the side of her head as if dealing with his sheer ignorance was giving her a physical migraine.
"Listen here," she began, her tone shifting into a begrudgingly helpful lecture. "Because its slime, I can actually buy this from you without much paperwork. But you seem like a nice, handsome guy, so I will tell you this because I feel generous today."
She then lifted a slender finger and pointed it directly at his chest.
"Firstly, if you truly want to make money in this kingdom, then selling scavenged slimes is not going to cover much for you. If you register officially at the adventurers guild, you can make way more money from sanctioned quests and guild rewards. Surely you see where I am heading with this?"
Lucious absorbed her words, analyzing the economic structure she was handing him for free. It made perfect sense.
The guild acted as a monopoly on high-paying jobs, and operating outside of it would keep him entirely at the bottom of the food chain.
"So I just need to register as an adventurer then. Got it," Lucious replied smoothly. "How much are you looking to buy these, and I will come back here with whatever I managed to pick up again."
For a brief moment, a genuinely charmed smile flickered on the red-haired girl’s face, likely flattered by his promise to return, which she immediately replaced with a forced, stern, professional look.
"I will give it to you, for two gold pieces, how about that?" Ely offered, crossing her arms over her chest.
Lucious frowned a bit, his pale brow furrowing.
He completely understood that he knew absolutely nothing of how money truly worked in this new world, let alone the conversion rate of gold to whatever other currency existed here.
But relying on his logic, to think a seasoned business person would freely give him a perfectly good price on the very first ask was not something he could ever believe. She was definitely lowballing him to test the waters.
"Increase by a bit and we have a deal," he countered, keeping his expression stone-cold.
Ely tapped her chin, feigning deep thought. "Hm.. okay then, how about I give you two gold pieces and five silver? That should be more than enough, no?"
Not like he would know.
But the addition of silver sounded like a victory, so he nodded his head.
Thus, he accepted the deal, sold the dead, foul-smelling slimes to Ely, and successfully made his very first money in this unforgiving world. The heavy, clinking coins felt cold and substantial in his palm, a tangible stepping stone toward building his faction.
"I will be expecting you," Ely said, waving cheerfully as she watched the strange duo head straight for the exit.
But just before Lucious walked out the wooden frame, he paused, his boots scraping against the floorboards, and turned around to ask one simple, vital question.
"Do you mind telling me where I can register to be an adventurer?"
It was now late afternoon.
The harsh morning sun had mellowed into a warm, golden haze that blanketed the sprawling, chaotic streets of Uranik city. Lucious and Dori had been walking the paved stone roads for nearly an hour, navigating through dense crowds of screaming merchants and rattling horse carriages to find the adventurers guild Ely had explicitly directed them to.
During their brief transaction, the shopkeeper had explained one or two crucial things that he desperately needed to know if he was truly serious about registering to be one.
In this world, being an adventurer was one of the most important, respected jobs you could possibly have, but it was undeniably also the hardest and deadliest.
Of all the things she explained to him, there was one specific, dire warning she gave him as a total newbie, which was to never join a party without knowing exactly what they do first.
Though he didn’t fully understand the underlying reason as to why that was so important, since she never really gave an actual, concrete reason beyond a grim look, he would also be incredibly foolish to not adhere to the free advice.
Dori walked so closely behind him that her shoulder occasionally brushed against his back.
The overwhelming noise, the suffocating smell of unwashed humans, and the towering stone buildings were clearly keeping her feral instincts on high alert.
She glared suspiciously at anyone who dared to look in their direction, her crimson eyes flashing with silent, protective threats.
Eventually, the narrow market streets opened up into a massive, paved plaza. At the far end stood the adventurers guild headquarters.
It was a towering, fortress-like structure made of dark reinforced stone and heavy timber, bustling with hundreds of different adventurers all flowing in and out of the massive double doors for different reasons.
The air inside the guild was thick, smelling intensely of spilled ale, dried sweat, roasted meat, and oiled leather.
The noise was deafening. Heavily armored warriors boasted loudly over wooden tables, while robed mages negotiated quietly in the dimly lit corners.
Maintaining his absolute composure, Lucious walked directly to the long reception desk at the back of the hall. He picked a numbered wooden token along with Dori, and patiently waited for their turn to proceed to register.
When called upon, all he needed to do was briefly fill out both his parchment form and hers, providing only basic, fabricated information to hide their true vampire origins.
He then reached into his pocket and paid a total of five silvers for the both of them, handing the cold coins over to the bored-looking clerk.
A few minutes later, he was handed his very own adventurer’s ID card, a small, magically infused plate of polished iron that felt heavy in his grip.
With the registration complete, Lucious then stood at the front of a massive, sprawling wooden board located somewhere in the center of the guild building. Here, he could easily see all the numerous parchment quests that were pasted up there, fluttering slightly from the draft of the open doors.
Since it was clearly stated on his adventurer’s card, he was told by the clerk that he would need to start exclusively from an F-rank section.
He scanned the massive board until he had to find the specific wooden section with the matching F-rank tag burned into the wood above it, and then he began the tedious process of picking a quest from within said section.
Most of the papers detailed mundane, insulting tasks. Cleaning out city sewers, finding lost noble pets, or harvesting common herbs in the safe zones. None of those would provide him with the blood points or the combat experience he desperately needed to feed his system.
Then, his glowing eyes caught a specific piece of aged parchment pinned near the edge.
’This one?’ he thought in his mind as he reached out a pale hand to grab the rough paper.
(F rank quest.
Task: A few goblins had built a foul nest outside of the Rando village, and are now causing fear and havoc to the poor people living there. These desperate villagers are looking for capable adventurers to help exterminate these creatures.
Difficulty: F rank monsters.
Pay: 40 gold pieces.)
Lucious stared at the number written in dark ink. Forty gold pieces. Compared to the mere two gold he had received for a bag full of slimes, this was a massive fortune.
When compared to the other mundane quests pinned on the wall, there was absolutely no doubt this was by far the best he could possibly pick up, given his current circumstances.
Goblins meant combat. Combat meant blood.
’I guess I will go with this one,’ he decided coldly. He carefully took the paper off the board and folded it neatly into his cloth.
Just as he turned around to leave the crowded board and signal Dori to follow, his heightened senses caught a shift in the crowd.
He noticed a few other adventurers were standing not too far away from where he currently was. It was a small, ragged group of three, consisting of one young boy and two girls.
They were standing directly in the exact same section as him, looking at the same board, meaning they undoubtedly had to be F-ranked adventurers as well.
They wore mismatched, cheap leather armor that looked entirely too big for them, and their weapons lacked the deadly sheen of proper maintenance.
"Hm.. this goblin quest needs a party of five if we are going to actually survive. Should we go look for more newbies?" one of them spoke out loud, the young male, who clearly looked to be the self-appointed leader of their pathetic group.
Which was then quickly followed by the shy, trembling girl standing behind him, who whispered nervously towards his shoulder.
"We cannot find adventurers now; it is too late in the day, most of the capable ones already joined a party hours ago."
"Hmm.." the boy thought to himself in silence, tapping the hilt of his cheap iron sword.
Then, the very next moment, his desperate eyes wandered across the crowd and locked directly towards Lucious, who was just about to walk right past him towards the exit.
At first, the boy simply noticed that Lucious was standing incredibly close to Dori, the feral-looking girl who seemed to be actively hiding herself from everyone behind his tall frame.
And then, looking at the two of them, it instantly clicked, as a bright, foolish idea bounced in his head.
Without thinking too much about the cold, unapproachable aura rolling off the pale stranger, his face lit up with absolute hope.
He launched himself forward, sliding right before Lucious and completely blocking his path to the heavy guild doors.
"Hold on just a minute!!!" the boy yelled at the absolute top of his voice, echoing over the dull roar of the guild.