Time perception set to Metric System. Now time is measured in seconds instead of mana drops.

Adrian changed his time perception back to normal once he was the next one at the queue. It did feel strange to him, seeing everything move so fast and himself thinking so slow when his body was accelerated as well. Even though Adrian wanted to try one more time this strange phenomenon, he had things to do.

“Next!” Cried the female officer at the guild reception.

Adrian stepped to the counter. He saw how the officer was smiling but her eyes were very tired. ‘I am tired too.’ Adrian told himself. ‘I did a full day job and then I got summoned to kill insects that wanted to kill me.’ Adrian sighed.

When Adrian was in front of her, the officer talked. “What do you wish?” She said, clearly a rehearsed formal greeting.

“I want to register myself as an adventure.” Adrian responded.

“Aren’t you a bit too old to start?” The woman at the desk asked.

“I need to work.” Adrian replied. “And I have these.” He pointed at his daggers.

“You say.” The officer said as she moved some papers. “You need to complete one basic task to be registered at the lowest rank, do you agree with it?”

“I do.” Adrian answered.

Adrian thought while he was at the queue that there may be an entrance fee that he had to pay. But it did seem that the guild asked a starter mission to be recognized as a guild member. Adrian thought it was no different from voluntary work, just at a fantasy setting.

“Are you experienced in combat?” The officer asked a question that looked like something out of a manual.

“Yes, I am,” Adrian said. “I had to kill a bunch of [Archimantis Homicida] to get to the city.”

“Oh, thank the pantheon!” Exclaimed the female officer. “That makes things a lot easier. Do you live at the city or a traveler?”

“I would say I am a traveler, but I do live in the woods.” Adrian followed his makeshift story.

“Could you lend me your daggers for an instant?” The officer requested.

“Sure.” Adrian gave her his two daggers.

“Hmm, seems legit.” She said, murmuring to herself.

“What are you doing?” Adrian asked her calmly.

“I was inspecting if there were trails of mantis blood, which there was.” She replied.

“I did clean them.” Adrian talked about his daggers.

“The scent and viscosity are hard to remove.” The female officer explained, she did have knowledge about the monsters. “You did kill the mantises near Czecheri, am I right?”

“Yes.” Adrian told her plainly.

“Consider yourself a member of the guild.” The officer congratulated him, without any hint of joy in her voice.

“Just like that?” Adrian asked doubtfully.

“You killed them, no?” The officer stated.

“Yes, but isn’t this going a bit fast?” Adrian had his doubts about this recruitment system.

“One of the basic tasks are killing mantises, I am just too tired to sign a document later, better to do it now.” The female receptionist said.

‘The guild does have competent workers’ Adrian joked in his mind.

“Now what?” Asked Adrian.

“Here.” Said the officer while passing him his daggers and a small copper plate that had a string going through it. “This is your guild rank identification, wear it.” And so Adrian did. “Now it should show another information line at your [Status], watch it.

Adrian opened his [Status].

Status

Name: Adrian Dewitt

Race: Homo Sapiens Hestia

Affiliation: Copper Guild Adventurer

Class: -

Level: 4

Experience: 60/700

[Fisica] 1 [Constituta] 1 [Destretza] 1 [Procesa] 1 [Experenta] 1 [Atravesta] 1 [Voluntat] 1 [Celeratio] 14.95 [Fortuna] 1 [Titles] [Skills] [Min-maxer] [Battle Timing] [A-celeratioed] [Fast Stab] [Assassinate]

“Oh.” Adrian let out a sound.

“Now get a quest and get out of the line.” Said the female officer.

Adrian rashly got out of the queue as the officer’s gaze penetrated him. He was a bit sad because he got no instructions or whatsoever, but observation was also a key element at the guild. Adventurer picked up quests from the quest log, they didn’t ask anyone and just took the paper with the information. Once the adventurers finished their missions they got back to the guild and joined the queue. There they deliver the quest paper and the quest objective. ‘Just like a game’ Adrian thought as he walked to the quest log board.

Even though Adrian could understand the details (there was a lot of imagery since he did notice the high rate of analphabetism) but the words that he could read weren’t ones he knew. There was this quest for example.

Exterminate 20 [Archmantis Homicida]

Bring back their left scythes as prove

Reward: 25 copper

The language wasn’t syllabic based nor any language that Adrian knew for that matter, but it was weird to him when the words made to his brain.

‘More than one copper per mantis, it would be useful if I knew the currency value.’ Adrian thought as he grabbed that quest and left the guild. ‘It’s shitty that the quest reward isn’t divisible by 6, but money is money.’ Adrian meditated as there could be some fighting while distributing the recompense. While walking down the streets to exit the city, Adrian saw not-that-bad-looking bread by only two copper. He supposed that a meal could be worth five copper. With the quest money, they couldn’t eat a proper meal today or even pay an inn. They would to endure with bread and camping outside.

Adrian walked out of the city and went towards the campsite, without before putting on his shoes.

“Why did you take so long?” Aby asked. She seemed pretty worried.

“There was a long queue at the guild.” Adrian replied.

“Guild? Guild like an adventurer’s guild?” Dale questioned excitedly.

“The same.” Adrian told him. “I became a copper plate adventurer, and I brought us a quest.”

Adrian gave them the quest paper.

“Should we go to the city?” Mike asked once he read the paper.

“I think you should wait outside for the moment,” Adrian explained. “Your clothes are too modern. Today we will finish this quest and I will buy food. Tomorrow I will pick another one and buy us some clothing or at least a coat so you don’t become the spotlight.”

“It’s okay for me.” Axel said. “Just need to smash more critters.”

“Doesn’t that mean that we will sleep outside? At this monster-plagued forest?” Kayle asked a bit scared.

“We’ll be fine.” Adrian comforted her. “Axel, Aby, and I can make shift night turns so we don’t get ambushed. And it won’t be difficult to light a campfire. Does anyone know how to make one?”

Dale and Axel rose their hands.

“Then we are set, let’s finish this quest!” Adrian told the party.