Bob quickly arrived at the city gates, out of breath.

A massive sloth, which the system identified as a [ Sloth King ], was in hot pursuit.

The reason that Bob was out of breath was, in fact, because he had been screaming his head off on the way here.

Though the Sloth King wasn't all that fast, like most other sloths, Bob still wasn't exactly a professional athlete.

Bob quickly ran up to the guards, who were already alerted due to the Sloth King being about 10 feet tall.

The guards made quick work of the sloth by stabbing it repeatedly with their spears.

Huh.

And here Bob thought that those were just for show.

* * *

A while later, one of the guards, probably their leader, walked up to Bob.

"Hey, you, state your business."

"I'm, er, here to sign up for the adventuring guild."

The guards exchanged some looks.

All of them burst out laughing.

Bob sighed.

He was starting to get used to this.

"No, really, state your business."

"I'm here to sign up for the adventuring guild?"

Seeing that Bob's expression contained no trace of humor, everyone suddenly stopped laughing.

"He's serious, isn't he?"

The guards started whispering among themselves, clearly not bothering with the fact that Bob could hear them quite adequately.

Bob sighed for what felt like the hundredth time today and waited for the guards to stop ridiculing him among themselves.

* * *

"Hey..."

"I've waited to get in to the adventuring guild for a few hours, I can wait longer..."

"Hello?"

"Hey, I exist, okay?"

"Hello...?"

* * *

After the guards finally stopped ridiculing Bob, one of the guards introduced himself as Rorik and lead him to a building that was even larger than the parchment-making factory, leaving him there.

"Alright, just remember about me when you become a, uh, successful adventurer, alright?"

All the other guards laughed.

"Nice one, dude."

The posse laughed as they left.

Bob sighed.

At least he had made their day.

"Hello, how may I help you?"

The secretary, who had been waiting politely at the front desk, suddenly spoke up.

"I want to register for the adventuring guild."

"If you would just come this way, please."

The secretary lead him to what seemed to be a mixture of an arena and a gym.

"This is where you will be fighting someone of your choice, and it will determine your rank."

"Alright, can I see the opponents who I can fight?"

The secretary handed him a list.

The list consisted of what looked like a couple of adventurers, with their ranks next to them.

Bob soon found what seemed to be the weakest of them.

He figured that he would try the weakest first, then work his way up and so then that way he wouldn't get beaten up too badly when he lost.

Bob picked a scrawny guy who was at the "F" rank.

He figured that this guy would be the weakest of them all.

"I pick this guy."

"Him? Are you sure you wouldn't like to select a weaker opponent?"

The secretary sounded geniunely worried for Bob.

She was probably mocking him.

Bob sighed and nodded.

* * *

Two minutes and a brutal beating later...

Bob groaned and opened his eyes.

How?!

That was the first thing that occured to him.

He briefly recounted the battle.

Bob had tried to hit him, only for the scrawny guy to meet him head on, sending Bob staggering back a few steps and almost dislocating his shoulder.

Bob had run away, luring the scrawny guy under an unstable ceiling beam and expending most of his luck points to bring it down at him.

The ceiling beam had hit him in the head...

and bounced off of him.

His body remained unscathed, the ceiling beam breaking in half.

He then commenced to beat Bob up, leaving him in a miserble state.

How?!

"How did I lose?!"

The secretary sighed.

"I already told you to find someone weaker..."

"Anyway, unless you want to retake the test, you will be an S ranked adventurer."

Bob sighed.

"Fine."

An S-ranked adventurer...

How puny was a...

Bob bolted upright.

AN S-RANKED ADVENTURER?!

"Miss, are you messing with me?!"

The secretary frowned.

"Of course not."

"It's natural for you to end up at the bottom, since you got beaten up badly and didn't put up much of a fight."

The bottom?

"The ranks for adventurers are Z, A, B, C, and so on, all the way to S."

"By the way, you should lie back down."

Ah...

Bob sighed dejectedly and lied back down.