HP: Sacred Gear Chat Group (2) - Chapter 6 (Patreon)

Chapter 6 - Adventurer

Damn… How can those even be real?

Ghislaine’s blade cut through the cool morning air in perfectly practiced motions. With every movement, her tail flicked behind her and her hair fluttered in the wind. Her powerful muscles shifted beneath her bronze skin with every step and swing.

Each sudden step and violent turn sent her generous chest bouncing noticeably, almost hypnotically. It made it difficult for me to concentrate on my own Studies.

Then came a downward strike powerful enough to send dust bursting outward from beneath her feet, and her breasts bounced again.

Damn, they would make a pretty effective distraction during a fight too.

A bead of sweat traveled down her neck, slipped between the defined lines of her chest, and disappeared beneath her leather top. Despite the intensity of her exercise, her breathing remained steady as her eyes suddenly settled on me.

“Do you want something?”

Right, I probably shouldn’t stare. But she was just so distracting. How was a straight guy like me supposed to completely ignore her?

“I was wondering if I should start learning Swordsmanship. You know, to get my body into better shape? Even with Magic, it would be better to have a backup plan and be able to react properly to my Opponents, especially fast ones.” I reasoned.

Working out had been part of my plans for a while, but being a Squib had sent me into a slight depression, and I had never gotten around to it.

Why not start now?

Especially since I would eventually learn how to use the Advanced level Sword Technique Battle Aura, which was essentially a form of Mana Manipulation used to strengthen the body to Supernatural Levels. In my eyes, that made it a form of Magic, at least on a technical level.

Ghislaine observed me for a moment before giving me a firm nod.

That looked like a yes to me.

“Let’s start once I buy a practice Sword.”

“You have money?”

“Some Gold. We’ll have to exchange it,” I admitted.

I knew she wouldn’t rob me. She was far too honest and loyal for something like that. By coming to her aid, I had already earned a good amount of her Loyalty.

“Now then, let’s pack up and head out. I want to make it to the City today.”

———

To be precise, we were currently in the Wishiru Region of the Asura Kingdom, the southernmost Territory of the Kingdom and its main trading Gateway to the southern part of the Central Continent.

The Kingdom itself was surrounded by Mountain Ranges and the Ocean on almost every side, with only a few relatively safe Roads leading into it.

Those natural barriers made the Kingdom incredibly defensible, but at the same time, they limited the amount of Territory it could easily expand into.

The City Ghislaine had been heading toward was actually the Capital of the entire Region and possessed one of the larger Adventurers Guild branches.

Like in most major Cities, the Adventurers Guild served as a gathering place for some of the toughest and strongest People around.

The moment we stepped into the Guild building, most of the gazes inside immediately turned toward us.

Or rather, toward Ghislaine.

A beautiful and powerful-looking Beastwoman was naturally going to attract the attention of a bunch of rowdy Adventurers.

“Look, some Newbies!”

“Who are they?”

“That Swordswoman is a real piece of ass!”

“What a hottie!”

“Newbies?”

“I wouldn’t mind having her join my Party~”

“Hehehe!”

Ignoring the stares, jeering laughter, and crude comments, we headed directly toward the Reception, where we were greeted by a young brown-haired woman.

“Welcome to the Adventurers Guild. How may I help you today?”

Now it was time to show off the results of my practice.

After using a Wit-Sharpening Potion, I had written myself a Language Guide based on the translations provided by my ‘Guide to Magic’ Book. I had then followed it up with a Memorization Potion to memorize the entire Guide.

Luckily, the Language was phonetic and used letters fairly similar to English, which made memorizing it much easier. After spending an entire night and most of the following day speaking nothing but the Human Tongue with Ghislaine, I had managed to learn the basics of the Language in just a single day.

Praise the drugs!

I mean Potions.

And probably the System too, since it had somehow been assisting me by unconsciously teaching me the Language whenever it translated Ghislaine’s words inside my head.

Oh, and I supposed repeatedly practicing specific sentences that might come up while registering with an Adventurers Guild had helped too.

Still, I had a feeling I would learn the Language fairly quickly even without relying on my remaining doses of those two Potions.

“Hello, we’d like to register as new Adventurers!” I greeted her politely while trying to sound as fluent as possible.

In true businesslike fashion, the Receptionist pulled out two sheets of Paper from beneath the Counter. “In that case, would you please start by filling out these forms?”

Still being a slow reader, it took me a moment to decipher the text. The forms looked identical. There was a line for your name, another for your profession, and some text describing the Guild and summarizing its rules.

“If you are illiterate, I can read it out loud for you,” the Receptionist offered, since most Commoners in this World were probably illiterate.

“We’ll manage.” I smiled while picking up the Paper and reading it aloud to Ghislaine, who couldn’t read at all.

Most of it was pretty much just the Rules an Adventurer had to follow, such as obeying the law or risking being thrown out of the Guild. It also explained what happened if someone lost their Adventurer License. They could get a replacement for a fee, but their Rank would be reset to F.

Guild Ranks started at F, followed by E, D, C, B, A, and finally S for the top Adventurers in the Guild. If I remembered correctly, the Mage Guild followed a similar System, although it was more focused on research than Adventurer Jobs.

To get a Rank Promotion as an Adventurer, you needed to complete a certain number of Jobs. For example, an F-Rank Adventurer needed to complete either ten F-Rank Jobs or five E-Rank Jobs in a row. The required number of Jobs and their difficulty increased with each Rank.

You could only take Jobs within one Rank above or below your own, so an F-Rank could only accept F or E-Rank Jobs. A D-Rank Adventurer couldn’t even take F-Rank Jobs anymore, with only E, D, or C-Rank Jobs being available to them.

The System was pretty straightforward.

Still, the fact that everyone had to start at F-Rank sucked, since most E and F-Rank Jobs were little more than odd jobs around the City. Hopefully, we could grind through them quickly because I didn’t want to stay here for too long.

Reaching the Demon Continent in only six Months would already be a difficult journey. I would need to learn how to ride as well, since we would need some Mounts if we wanted to travel faster.

“What happens if we use a fake name on here?” I asked the Receptionist after explaining the contents of the form to Ghislaine.

“There are generally no rules against it. You may use whatever name you like.”

Huh, that was lenient.

“What about Criminals?”

“As long as they haven’t broken any Guild Rules yet or been expelled, even Criminals may register. However, if you are ever stripped of your status as an Adventurer, you’ll find it impossible to register again… on this Continent, at least.”

Right, I remembered that.

Their Membership Cards were Magic Tools, so perhaps they could blacklist someone from registering again, at least across the entire Continent.

That made sense.

Well, good for me. That spared me from having to use my last name. Commoners usually only had a given name, while Nobles and wealthy families possessed Last Names. I had no interest in attracting unnecessary attention simply because I had one.

Wait, since they could only blacklist someone on the same Continent…

“If I register here, do I have to re-register on another Continent?”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Good to know.

After finishing our Forms, I handed them over to the Receptionist. Once she was done checking them, she pulled out a transparent board about the size and shape of a game box, with a Magic Circle engraved at its center. I could see a small metal card sitting beneath its surface.

“Please place your hand here.”

I pressed my hand flat against the center of the plate, and the clerk tapped a button along its far edge.

“Name, Alistair. Profession, Magician. Rank F.”

After reading the contents of my form aloud in a flat, steady voice, she pressed the button a second time, causing the Magic Circle to glow faintly red for a brief moment.

“Here you are. This is your Adventurer Card.”

That was quick.

The ordinary-looking metal card was now marked with faintly glowing letters:

NAME: Alistair

SEX: Male

RACE: Human

AGE: 18

PROFESSION: Magician

RANK: F

Shortly afterward, Ghislaine underwent the same process and received her own Card.

NAME: Ghislaine

SEX: Female

RACE: Human

AGE: 18

PROFESSION: Swordsman

RANK: F

I intentionally left out her last name as well, since she was technically related to a form of Royalty. After all, she was the daughter of the current Patriarch of the Doldia Tribe, which ruled over the Beast Territory in the Great Forest.

Those Cards were quite handy. Not only did they contain our Adventurer information, but they could also switch between different languages by pressing a finger against the center of the Card and calling out the name of the Language.

Of course, only commonly known Languages were available. Something like English from another World obviously wouldn’t work.

“Would you like to register a Party as well?” the Receptionist asked once both of us had our Cards.

“Of course, please!”

She quickly gave us a rundown of the Party System.

A Party could consist of at most seven Members, and just like with Jobs, all Members had to be within one Rank of the Party Leader. The Party Rank itself was determined by the average Rank of all its Members.

Credit for completed Jobs was shared among the Party. The Party Leader could pretty much decide who was allowed to join, but any changes had to be registered through the Guild so they could update the Adventurer Cards. Should the Leader die, the Party would automatically be disbanded.

Lastly, although it didn’t concern us right now, two or more Parties could join together to form a Clan. High-performing Clans could even earn special rewards.

“Now then, what would you like to use as your Party’s name?”

Uh, great. Names…

Turning toward Ghislaine, I asked, “Any suggestions?”

I only received a shake of her head in response.

Fine… I didn’t really give a shit. Let’s just pick something cool-sounding like a true cringe nerd.

“Ragnarok.”

And with that, another line was added to our Adventurer Cards:

PARTY: Ragnarok (F)

“We’ve fully completed the registration process. Congratulations,” the Receptionist announced as she returned our Cards. “If you want to take on any Jobs, simply tear the relevant paper from the board and bring it over to one of our reception counters.”

“Okay!” I nodded before heading toward the Request Board, with Ghislaine following right behind me. “Let’s see…”

Yeah, it looked pretty boring for an F-Rank Adventurer.

And the pay was also shit.

F-Rank Jobs paid somewhere around one to five Asuran Copper Coins while usually involving tedious work that could last half a day, if not the entire day.

They included things like helping out in a Kitchen, carrying supplies, cleaning buildings, and other simple chores.

E-Rank Jobs paid a little more, usually starting around one Large Asuran Copper Coin, but they were still fairly similar in nature. Some involved slightly more dangerous work, such as searching for missing objects or performing riskier chores. Others required specific skills, like basic Craftsmanship for repair work and similar tasks.

However, one of the E-Rank Jobs stood out immediately, at least based on the reward.

And I could totally understand why.

Rank-E

TASK: Clean the Sewers

REWARD: 5 Asuran Silver Coins

DETAILS: Remove the Waste from the City’s Sewers

LOCATION: City Sewer

DURATION: Until the Sewers are clean

DEADLINE: As soon as possible

CLIENT: City Lord of the Eurus Family

Yeah, I could see why this Job paid so much compared to the other E-Rank Jobs.

It offered around fifty times the reward of an average E-Rank Job.

At the same time, it sounded absolutely miserable.

The best option would probably be for an Advanced-Rank Water Mage to take care of it. Anyone else would have to shovel the waste into Carts and haul it out by hand.

Yet I could probably…

No. I needed a little more practice first.

Let’s take those two repair Jobs instead. They should both be nearby.

Tearing down the Request Forms for two E-Rank Jobs, I headed back toward the Counter.

“We’d like to take these two Jobs.”

“Two at once?” the Receptionist asked, raising an eyebrow. “Do you have any relevant Craftsmanship Skills?”

Both Jobs involved repairs, but they required very different kinds of work. One involved repairing a wooden Garden Fence, which would require at least some skill in Woodworking, while the other was for fixing a Roof after a Storm had destroyed part of the tiling.

“You could say that.” I nodded.

She didn’t look entirely convinced.

“You are aware that if you fail a Job, you’ll have to compensate the Client with twice the listed Reward?”

“I am. I’d still like to take them.”

“Fine, if you’re confident.”

———

It didn’t even take an hour to complete both Jobs, even though each of them had been estimated to take more than half a day. And I meant less than an hour in total. The longest part was actually finding the places and speaking with the Clients.

The rest only required a wave of my Wand and a short, “Reparo.”

It was a perfect opportunity to practice the Charm in a real-life setting. Both the Fence and Roof were restored to almost perfect condition, earning us a small bonus since the Clients didn’t need to purchase any new materials for the repairs.

In the end, we left the Adventurers Guild with two completed E-Rank Jobs to our names and a total of three Large Asuran Copper Coins, or thirty of the smaller ones.

But that was enough for one day. We also needed some time to recover from today’s Journey.

We could complete the remaining E-Rank Jobs required for our Promotion tomorrow.

“That was easy,” Ghislaine commented. “Should we look for an Inn or sleep in your Tent?”

“I say the Tent. Why waste Money when it’s better in pretty much every way?” I replied.

Honestly, the beds in those Inns were filled with Straw, while mine were feather beds enhanced with Charms. The amenities inside my Tent were also much nicer, not to mention cleaner.

My Magical Tent was superior in every way.

“I agree.”

“But first, let’s find somewhere I can exchange my Gold for some local Currency, then head to that Bookstore we saw earlier. Maybe an equipment store too,” I decided.

The exchange fee for converting Galleons into Asuran Gold Coins through the System was ten percent, while I managed to bargain a local Merchant down to only three percent.

Galleons were slightly thicker and larger than Asuran Gold Coins, so each one ended up being worth roughly two Asuran Gold Coins.

In the end, I walked away from the Merchant with two hundred Asuran Gold Coins while still having more than a hundred Galleons left in my possession.

Like I said, I didn’t want to spend everything I had in this World. If possible, I wanted to make a profit instead.

I was mainly looking for Magic Books to study because the ‘Guide to Magic’ I had received through the Gacha only taught up to one Intermediate-Rank Spell for each of the Offensive Elements, along with a handful of additional Beginner-Rank Spells.

If I wanted anything more advanced, I would have to find it myself.

And I was planning to scout out every Bookstore I came across on my way to the Demon Continent in search of more Magic Books.

As for returning home with a profit?

Well, I had several rich Ladies in the Chat Group who were eager to purchase things like Enchanted Equipment. The Market System only determined the minimum Price, so there was nothing preventing me from adding a nice profit margin on top.

"Let's get a practice sword too."

Oh, right sword training. She seems eager?

[-- End of Chapter --]