The two belligerent men who had challenged Lone and Sophie were already gone, quick to use the training area they were sparing in to warm up.

They might have been rude assholes, but Lone had to give them credit. At least they were treating this seriously, which was exactly what he wanted. There would be little-to-no point if he and Sophie were treated like children, after all.

He wanted to learn through this spar. Regardless, Lone refocused his attention on the guild employee.

"As you don't have enough members to form an official adventurers’ group, only your name shall be etched into your adventure plate," the man explained.

He then used a small carving knife that glowed faintly to write 'Lone Immortus' on a small piece of wood and then 'Sophie Vladimirovich' on another. It took him several tries to write her name due to how odd it was.

"It will cost you 20 silvers to register per person, making it 40 in total," the employee said with a polite smile on his face.

Lone raised an eyebrow as he rummaged through his pocket and noticed they only had 56 silvers left and a handful of coppers. Still he picked out the 40 needed.

"That's a lot of money, isn't it?" Lone asked.

The employee nodded as he took the coins and started counting them carefully. "It is, but with some elbow grease, it can easily be earned back in a day to a week depending on the types of quests you undertake as well as your skill level."

"What I meant to ask is why's it so pricey in the first place?" Lone said as he smiled wryly and began playing with his new adventurer's plate.

"Hahaha, of course, sir. Well, being an adventurer has many benefits. So many, in fact, that it would take an incredible amount of time to explain them all. The biggest one is that it allows free travel across almost every border. Adventurers also get an entry discount to most human-run countries. Demi-run countries will allow adventurers of a certain plate rank to enter regardless of species as well since we don't let just anyone increase their rank because they're strong or because they're influential. Not even if they've done a lot of quests. We consider personality and motivations quite heavily when ranking up an individual’s plate," the employee explained.

Lone nodded slowly. "Makes sense, considering all adventurers kinda represent the guild. It does sound incredibly hard to, you know, regulate. Surely there'd be internal corruption getting in the way of that, no?"

Again, the employee laughed gently. "The Grand Guildmaster is a Divine, so that's hardly a realistic worry. People have tried before, but she has a very powerful artefact that allows her to detect wrong-doings amongst her employees. She also only employs the most trustworthy of people to act as guildmasters for guild's branches."

"Sounds a bit unbelievable. The part about that tool," Lone noted as his mind wandered elsewhere. 'A Divine? What the fuck's a Divine?'

"Many do not believe it exists, but please, if you see a morally bankrupt person with a plate ranked above silver, let me know. I'll pay you a whole ruby-gold coin if you do," the employee declared a little bit smugly.

'What the hell's a ruby-gold coin? Never heard of that type of currency before,' Lone thought before he asked, "Sure, but I'm curious, what ranks are there anyway?" He gestured to his wooden plate and said, "I can guess that wood is the lowest, right?"

"How astute. Indeed, a wooden plate is the lowest possible adventurer rank. There are 15 in total. Going from the lowest to the highest, we have; wooden, iron, copper, bronze, steel, dark-steel, silver, gold-silver, gold, white-gold, adamantine, ruby-red, emerald-green, sapphire-blue, and lastly, diamond-clear," he happily explained in a very routine-like manner.

"Huh... That's a lot," Lone commented.

"True, but there are also 15 natural ranks of I-rank to triple-X-rank, so even without being above B-rank, you can usually tell how strong an adventurer is if you mentally pair their plate to the same rank. Like how an adamantine plate would be roughly an SS-ranker. Of course, there are talented people who this doesn't work on as well as unsavoury types who just never reach silver plate status. It also becomes irrelevant if you manage to become a B-ranker since you can just sense the other person's internal strength at that point, but it's a handy and fairly reliable trick at C-rank or lower," the employee advised with a warm expression on his face.

Lone frowned and held his chin as he privately ruminated over the man’s words. 'B-rankers can detect other people's internal strength? Shit. That's really useful and really dangerous information. I need to reach B-rank as soon as I can then, don't I?'

At this point, Sophie yawned audibly. "Lone, may we finish up here and go deal with those buffoons that insulted us?"

Lone grinned a bit wryly. "Right. Um, one last question. Do we have to display our plates at all times, or can we hide them if we want to?"

"Ah, a fair question. Normally, yes, you do have to wear them on your person. Most hang them around their necks via a string or a chain, but I have seen them sewn into clothing or welded onto armour before. When I say that you 'have' to wear them, that only applies when accepting and turning in quests. I would advise that you do keep them visible at all times, however," the man said.

"Why?" Lone asked.

He didn't see the point. Wouldn't it just tell people that they were newbies and easily attackable? Knowing that B-rankers or above could tell their ranks was annoying enough, why give that ability to those at C-rank people and below?

The employee chuckled softly. "I know that look, sir. Trust me, you will be safer with your plates on display, regardless of their material. Every guildmaster takes after the grand guildmaster and is very protective of adventurers. So long as an adventurer is not in the wrong should an incident happen, the guildmaster of our branch here in Ranton will give his full support to them."

"And this guildmaster is someone impressive?" Lone followed up by asking.

"Exceedingly so. His uncle is an incredibly well-respected soul oracle and he himself is a powerful SS-ranker. Just to put that into perspective, Milindo only has five SS-rankers of their own, but each one of them is weaker than Guildmaster Gilbert on the individual scale," the employee claimed.

"Huh... Okay. Thanks for the info," Lone replied.

The employee smiled brightly. "Not at all, sir. It's rare to find someone so interested in anything beyond making quick money here. This was a refreshing conversation. Now, I assume you wish to proceed with your challenges against those two men?"

"Yeah. Are there any formal procedures or anything?" Lone asked politely.

"Indeed. You may have seen those... gentlemen speaking with my colleague just before I was finished making your plates. I'll need you to sign waivers just as they did, waivers stating that the guild is not responsible for any life-changing injuries or death,” the man claimed.

Lone furrowed his brow. “This place fosters a culture that allows such things? I would expect it to be banned.”

“Sadly, there are far too many skills and slight differences in power that can easily lead to a severe accident, intentional or not,” the employee clarified.

Lone’s expression didn’t change but he did nod, understanding the logic.

“Of course, both maiming and murder are strictly prohibited in challenges between adventurers, but they happen occasionally. Signing the waiver means that you accept full responsibility to compensate your opponent or their next of kin should you cripple or kill them, and vice-versa, you leave all responsibility to them should you be the victim," the employee calmly stated as he slid two parchments across the counter along with an inkwell that had two quills in it. “The guild also provides legal immunity for murder but only when it can be proven it was an accident with 100% certainty.”

"Huh. Well, the waivers a lot more sense now. You can't have some losers waltzing in here, sign up to be adventurers, then just lose a hand in a duel on purpose to sue the guild," Lone muttered as he and Sophie signed their papers.

"Indeed. There is also a fee of a single silver piece for the guild to host such challenges, but only the challenger has to pay this, so you are now free to go to the training area where your opponents await you," the employee said as he checked both Lone's and Sophie's signatures before he filed the documents underneath the counter.

"As a small word of advice, the misogynist is known to be quite quick despite his large weapon, while the speciesist is mostly an all-rounder, though he does supposedly know some very basic fire magic. Crude Fireball, if I'm not mistaken," he added with a warm smile.

Lone gave him a peculiar look. "Uh, thanks for the tips."

"Think nothing of it. Those men will never become anything more than steel-plates in their entire lives unless they change their ways, so I'm perfectly happy giving you two a nice little advantage. I have a good eye for people, you see. All of the staff here do. It's why we were hired. I look forward to working with you in the future, Sir Immortus," the employee said as he bowed his head politely.

"Huh. Good to know. Likewise. Well, we'll be back shortly then to take on a quest or two," Lone happily replied as he left with Sophie.

'Wow. There's a lot of people gathered here. I guess they came to watch our fights since they're rare like that staff member said?' Lone wondered as he walked into the open courtyard that had a large fighting ring in its centre.

Perhaps 30 adventurers had gathered and were making bets on who would win, or they were simply enjoying food and drink that they'd bought from the guild's second floor restaurant.

The short man who'd aggressively insulted Lone for his foxkin heritage grinned and stretched his body. "Finally. I thought ye'd nev'r show. I figured ye'd fucked back off into the forest where yer kind belongs, demi trash."

The taller man just glared at Sophie menacingly.

Ignoring the insult thrown at him, Lone asked, "How do you guys wanna do this? One-on-one, or two-v-two? I'd prefer we all fight together, to be honest. The quicker this is over, the better. We plan to actually do some work today, not just loaf about like losers drinking like there's no tomorrow."

The two men's faces distorted with anger while the crowd started hollering and laughing.

"Hahaha! For a demi, he sure knows how to hit ‘em where it hurts! Hell, even ah feel like doin’ a quest now just to proof the cheeky fuck’r wrong!"

"Right you are! Even slaves can have a sense of humour!"

"This'll only make it even more satisfyin' when he gets his shite pushed in for bein' so arrogant!"

"Hey, Grindol, make sure you cut a tail or two off for what he said!"

"You two should fight 'em together! Only a coward would be scared of one demi and a woman! ‘Sides, they’re both only H-rankers!"

At this point, their opponents had clearly heard enough.

The taller man drew his greatsword from his back and narrowed his eyes. "So be it. Come at us together. It will hardly make a difference."

The shorter and slightly pudgier man held his daggers backhandedly as he smirked while looking at Lone. "I'm thinkin' three or four tails. 'At should put ya back in yer place."

Lone laughed. "There must be a misunderstanding here. You'll only be fighting me. I said two-v-two, but I really meant both of you against me and my sword, not my companion. You see, if Sophie fights, she'd struggle to hold back, and I'd honestly rather not pay your bastard sons and daughters who don't even know you're their fathers your funeral money."

That shut the whole training field up before the crowd of onlookers suddenly burst out with uproarious mirth.

"This fuck'r... Oi, Quint, fuck 'im. 'E wants to fight us both at the same time? Well then, fuckin' let 'im! Keep 'im busy while I prep my magic. I'll fuckin' roast 'im like the animal 'e is!" the short man ordered his friend furiously as he sheathed his daggers.

Lone grinned. 'Perfectly provoked. Now I can upgrade my Fire Magic Resistance and maybe learn Greatsword Mastery if this oaf has it. Just as planned.'