Finally! Alex had no idea becoming an adventurer involved so much paperwork. There were student fees, board fees, health forms, substance abuse training courses, denial of liability agreements from the guild, and many other seemingly pointless documents. He almost would have thought the adventurer academy was a waste of time, had he not earned top of his class in swordsmanship, archery, and alchemy. His achievements in the academy earned him a rank 3 position straight away in the kingdom's ranking system. The only thing holding him back from being rank 2 was his weak skills in magic.

After completing the seemingly never ending "quest" to complete and hand in all his paperwork, he would finally able to start his first real mission!

He was lucky to have obtained a rank 3 position in the guild. Most of the time those above rank 4 were in parties and had to split their profits. While the money isn't the main reason Alex wanted to become an adventurer, it certainly wasn't a deterrent.

After handing in his last document, Alex went to check the bulletin board where jobs were posted. He read the available jobs on the board.

Would he rescue a damsel from a monster?

Nah, that's too typical. Plus, they were almost never TRULY an evil beast kidnapping a noble's precious daughter, it was more than likely they stayed out too late and their overprotective parents put out a missing poster for them. That was a nice gem of info from the academy he would never forget.

How about taking out a bounty on one of the dangerous creatures roaming the countryside?

Even with his skillset, Alex knew it would take more than one adventurer to take out something like a giant on his own. He would have to wait until he got more experience in the field before that.

There! the perfect job. A small group of goblins had stolen some weapons from the armory of a town south of the guildhall. It was only a day's journey, and even though he didn't excel in magic, his hastening spell could cut that journey in half.

A small goblin encampment could be trouble for a small village, especially when they steal the weapons that would have been used against them, but to someone like Alex, it should be pretty simple. Not too easy to be boring, and not too hard to pose a serious threat to him.

"I'll take this job," Alex told the receptionist.

He stared in horror as the receptionist handed him the job request form.

More paperwork.