Oh god, why did everything have to be so complicated? Derb read through his notes once more, cursing his chicken scratch handwriting. Apparently, It’d be fine if all he did was pick plants and not die, but choosing the path of a mercenary adventurer was mostly business. He read through the responsibilities, raiding, teaming up, temporary members, how death meant no compensation. Bla Bla Bla. Most of the rules were for teams, and he wasn’t planning on joining up with people any time soon. He glanced at the lady at the counter opposite the lounge where he was, she was still glaring at him.

Apparently, he’d hadn’t been taking it seriously and she cussed him out right in front of everyone. She even called hima child, which was a bit called for admittedly. At the very least, his outlook on killing seemed a bit childish. In a world where medicine was rare and healer’s were even rarer, his young face beaming at the sight of danger was a surefire symptom of psychosis. He wouldn’t be having this self-reflection if the lady hadn’t shouted his ear off the whole time. It was only when he was forced to sit down and study did he remember he had a damn healing ability. Being terrified for your life made you forget things, it seems.

Tactics, local monsters, places to avoid… dangerous rivers… His eyes closed as he yawned, maybe he could rest his eyes for a bit. Someone shaking the table jolted him awake, a grizzly man with light armor and a beard gave him a sly grin as he held one side of the table. A group of men at another table laughed raucously, making Derb’s face flush hot with embarrassment. Oh, crap. Everyone here saw him get told off by a girl, huh… He looked around to see similar faces. Some were mocking while others were trying their best to be polite and hold in their laughter.

Shit, just study, if he studied then he’d forget all his problems. Right before he started focusing, the lady at the counter came up to him again, placing a book at his table. “At least read this and you can choose a mission, nothing too hard, got it?” He nodded while looking down, not daring to look her in the eye. This wasn’t unnoticed by some of the others, and people around him were both mocking him and cheering him on. It turned deadly silent once she glared at them, though. He felt relieved he wasn’t alone in his fear.

She turned back to him and pouted. “I’m not a bad person, you know? If I could count on my fingers how many idiots like you thought they could just waltz in and make a quick buck I wouldn't need this job. Half of them don’t even make it back to tell them I told them so...” Derb grimaced, “Maybe an idiot is a bit much, I am an adult after all and I'd like to be treated like one.” No one said a word, and it made Derb go red, that’s exactly what an idiot child would say in this situation. The counter lady smiled warmly, “Yes, honey. I know. I just thought you needed a push in the right direction.”

He almost walked out on those words, if it wasn’t for the fact he was flat broke he'd have holed himself up in the inn after being treated like that. “Just… Thank you for lending me the book. That’s everything, right?” His hands were trembling in shame, there wasn’t a single person in the guild who hadn’t seen that. He wasn’t angry more than he was embarrassed at the way he acted. This was the punishment, he guessed, studying up on the basics of everything in the guild.

There were three types of adventurers: gatherers, mercenaries, and finally, peacekeepers. Gatherers were obvious, people who obtained items that wouldn’t fight back. They were the least paid but also had the highest lifespans. Mercenaries were basically gatherers that could get their hands dirty, going after anything as long as the money was fine. It was being a Peacekeeper where the jobs became a lot more official. He thought they were police until he realized they were more like a second army and were paid quite a bit more.

No one could be one until they properly made their name in an area, and were respected as good individuals. There were only about 60 Peacekeepers in the city and he was turned down when he asked for their names, so he could only wonder what kind of position it was. Within each job was a bunch of rankings, mostly for mercenaries since they had a wider set of responsibilities. Beginner, Common, Fighter, Greater, Famous, and finally special rank. There wasn’t really a way shown to increase rank, so he assumed it was the prejudice of the guild itself that decided.

After about two hours or so of reading and writing, he set everything down. He felt refreshed, like he did when he studied for school in his past life. He almost went to the counter before he realized how dark out it was. There were still plenty of people in the guild so it didn’t really bother him but he assumed he’d be a bother to apply for something so late. He went up to the counter where the lady was still working, giving him a suspicious glare as he walked up. “Um… sorry about everything, here’s the book you lent me. I’ll come back tomorrow to properly join.”

She grinned at his cautious attitude, maybe this one could become a regular. “Don’t worry, honey. There’s no real application for this type of thing, especially after everything I've done to you, here.” She tossed something at him, a circular badge that had a single line going down the middle. “Get one of the reliable hunting jobs, there's been a lot of ratmen surging around the area, it seems like many have gone into hiding recently but people think it’s just to trick us. There's also a goblin camp not too far from here, you can hide in the outskirts and take out stragglers of either one.”

Derb remembered his fights against the ratmen, how much money did he waste leaving their bodies behind? He looked at the stack of contracts showing similar quests. “I… I'll take the goblin one. How can I show that I've killed them?” She looked at him in shock, before remembering who she was talking to. “Left ear… just take that from the goblin. Even children know how to do that.” She covered her mouth when she said the last part, it was too rude for someone on the job. He just laughed it off. “I was paid for many things until recently so I never had to learn about all this.”

She rolled her eyes, guessing she was right about him being spoiled. He waved goodbye and walked away, leaving her to wonder just how prestigious his family was for him to come out this clueless. Derb felt good, he felt a bit tired mentally but his body was begging for action. He looked at the contract he’d taken: 7 goblins. Any extra would be taken into consideration for rank. The price was 3 silver, enough for him to go off on. He hurried back to the inn to get his armor, no sense in waiting until tomorrow.

By the time he made it back, he noticed a peculiar scene. Jenny and the others must have caused quite a scene since people were crowding around the inn. It burned his ego knowing that could have been him at the center of attention. He brushed it off and tried to squeeze past people. “Hey! No cutting!” He heard in the background. “I’m staying here! Let me through!” Derb cried, no one even trying to act like they cared. He managed to squeeze through without maiming everyone and ran towards his room.

No one was allowed past the lobby so he was finally alone, well, almost. Jenny and The others were standing there in a panic at his appearance. He couldn’t hear what they were saying but Frederick was whisper shouting at Jenny while she was fumbling with the keys in the lock. Derrick was in the background with cold eyes, staring him down as if daring to make a move. He didn’t, in fact, make a move. He was frozen in shock at their behaviour, though now that he thought about it it was completely reasonable. “Wait, wait! No bad blood, ok?” He said, arms out as if trying to console a wild animal.

Derrick either didn’t hear him or didn’t care, his hand inching closer towards his sword. Jenny noticed and yelped, ripping open the door and pushing the two brothers inside. Derb… didn’t know how to feel about that, in a single day he’d soured most of the relationships he had in the town. He was too tired to bang on their door and demand peace between them so he just went into his room, seeing Connor with his now newly fixed armor. “Nice… Good job, Connor. What would I do without you?” Connor nodded with an immature smirk on his face, floating over with the helmet.

Derb took it and put it on, the familiar hold around his head around his head both comforting and annoying him. It was like a second skin… but less breezy. He walked over to the rest and he stood there as Connor slowly donned him into the sinister plating. He didn’t realize until he put it back on that he’d been acting jumpy the entire day, anxiousness from being vulnerable plaguing his mind. Now that he was back in he could feel the muscles in his abdomen relax into mush, it felt weird enough that he had to sit down.

“Shit… this might be a problem,” Derb muttered to himself. Was this like how some people couldn’t go to places without their blanket or stuffed animal? If it was he needed to learn how to stop it, he didn’t want this turning into a dependency. He flexed his fingers, watching the armor follow along smoothly and effortlessly as if he never took it off. He swore he could almost feel through the fingertips if he focused hard enough. He knew he couldn’t but even the illusion went to show how amazing the armor was. He had to make sure to thank Deitre again if he ever went back, he never properly showed his appreciation after all.

He had so much to think about lately… it all uselessly entered and exited his mind without a plan. He walked toward his traveling pack and pulled out a piece of ritual paper and an inkwell and pen. He needed to get things in order if he wanted to properly live in this town. The first thing was obvious, he needed money. A lot of money. He needed it by the end of the month, preferably this week if he wanted to eat anything other than dirt. He cursed the healing ability’s need for nutrients because he went through a week of rations in 3 days. He wrote that down too, ‘find good food’.

He needed to make amends with Jenny and the others too, he guessed. It’d be good to at least not have Derrick stare him down every moment they were together. He threw away the idea of making up with Ryan, it’d be better just to run every time they saw him… Derb wondered if that’s how Derrick felt. He wrote it down and kept brainstorming. What else was he supposed to do? To become a mercenary was another goal but that was set for tomorrow, not really something he had to plan out. After a bit of thinking, he jumped from his seat, “The summoner!”

How could he forget!? The entire group he faced in the arena was unique but he mostly wanted to find the summoner again to get information. Maybe he could make new connections, people like them didn’t come around often. He reread the paper, this was going to be annoying to carry out… 1. Make money 2. Find food. 3. Make amends. And then 4. Find the summoner. It didn’t seem like much on paper but each one was going to suck trying to fix. He folded the paper and shoved it into one of his belt pockets. He groaned when he realized he had to remove the armor again to sleep. This wasn’t the greatest day.