Chapter 25: Gone

“Hey! We’re here” A voice broke Jerry from his slumber. He awoke to the driver of the carriage waking him up outside a large wall. He had arrived at the Imperial Kingdom and now stood outside it’s walls that stood grand and mighty should any invaders come.

Jerry dropped down from the carriage and onto the ground with a thump.

“Just go to the guard there to check in and go in. I already checked in so I’m going ahead. Thank you for your business” The driver said before he drove off into the Kingdom. Jerry did a quick stretch, moving his arms, body, and legs before cracking his neck.

‘What do I do now’ Jerry thought.

Jerry approached the city gates and was approached by a guard in minimalistic armor, covering the head, chest, and shoulders.

“Identification” The guard said. Jerry took out the paper document provided by the Adventurer’s Guild and handed it to the guard who took the paper and examined it.

“What’s your name?” The guard asked.

“My name is Je- Larry” Jerry quickly corrected himself, still waking up.

“Je?”

“Slip of tongue. Sorry”

“Right. Well, you’re free to go. I don’t get paid enough to ask questions”

The guard handed Jerry his paper back and allowed Jerry into the Kingdom. Jerry walked forward, massaging the back of his neck and entered the Kingdom.

When he entered, he was met with the sight of large amounts of armored individuals wearing assortments of armors walking around the streets. Some were wearing blinding gold armor while others wore leather or just plain clothing. It seemed like almost everyone had a job that involved something dangerous. He walked around the crowded streets, finding more people wearing more strange armor with some wearing bone or engraved armor.

Jerry then stood outside the Adventurer’s Guild building which could be distinguished by it’s sign outside with the similar symbol as the one in the Empire. This building was however, was much more grander and larger than the other one. It had 3 stories to the building and seemed to be in significantly better condition with it’s clean exterior and decoration that lined the building.

He entered the building to find that it was much more crowded than the Empire one with more receptionists, adventurers, and job boards. Jerry looked around for something to do. Maybe a job, or gather some information about things in the Kingdom.

Jerry approached the Job Board and looked through the current jobs. Most were herb collections, delivery quests or something that was simple that involved no risk. Move something there, get this, go there, nothing fun.

Jerry looked at some of the harder ones, some that were definitely above his rank and found a nice bounty.

Eliminate Blackridge Bandits

Rank: B+

Recommended People: 5 B+ Ranked Adventurers

Reward: 50 Gold Pieces

This job offer piqued Jerry’s interest as it was well paying and seemed to be a challenge. The problem was that it was well above his rank as he was currently a rank E and they could only do simple tasks. Jerry decided to press his luck and took the job offering off the wall and went towards the receptionist’s desk that was really just a wall with an open slot.

“Hey, I’d like to do this quest” Jerry said as he put the paper on the desk.

“Great! Can I see your Adventurer Card?” The receptionist asked.

Jerry took his paper out and placed it on the table

“Oh, you’re a rank E?”

“Yea”

“I’m afraid we cannot allow you to take the quest from us”

“May I ask why?”

“The Adventurer’s Guild does let rookies take life endangering quests. If you’d like, you can take an easier quest or prove that you can take it safely”

“How do I prove myself?”

“Just meet the requirements. If you’d like, you can take a magic test”

“Is there another test I can take?”

“You can duel the guild master but there is a fee if you fail”

“I’ll take it”

“You do realize what the fee is, right?

“Nope, don’t care”

“No life endangering attacks”

“Yea yea, I got it”

“Please wait here”

The receptionist then went to the back of his booth and left. Jerry waited for a while before a loud voice came above him.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a rank E that wishes to duel me!” The voice said. It was loud, manly, and had the weight of a commander in an army.

The room then burst into laughter as the voice subsided.

“What fucking idiot is gonna do that?”

“Rank E? Who’s the dead fuck?”

“Who’s the dumbass?”

“Lord have mercy on his soul”

“Such a short career”

Jerry then realized what he just did. It was going to be like an arena style fight like he did with Larmen.

“His name seems to be Larry! But he likes the name Foxtrot! Larry, come and show yourself” The voice said.

Jerry then raised his hand as he walked into the view of the voice. Jerry looked up to find a man in medium-ish golden armor with his hands on the railing with the receptionist by his side.

“Is that you Larry? I heard you disregarded the fee!”

“Yea, I don’t care. I wanna do a fun quest, but I need a rank for it. So, eh” Jerry said with a shrug.

“Very well, come outside and we can duel. Do you have your own weapons for this duel?”

“Not for this duel, no”

“Then we will provide you with one”

“It’s fine, I can find one real quick”

“Are you sure? I can get you a wea-”

“No, it’s fine. I need to find a room anyways. Where do we meet?”

“I can provide you a guild room but come quickly. After 3 hours, the duel is forfeit for you and you must pay the fee. Bring what weapons you like. Concealed or not, it won’t matter.”

“What’s the fee, out of curiosity?”

“20 years of hard manual labor”

Jerry laughed silently before quickly regathering his composure.

“Take me to the room”

The man nodded before signaling to the receptionist. The receptionist then hopped the banister before landing in front of Jerry with a silent woosh.

“Follow me, Larry” the receptionist said before walking to a door that was on the right side of the hall. The room led to another room, similar to the one before, but had a smaller interior and was less crowded but more grander. The room before was decorated with stone and wood while this room seemed to be decorated with gold, marble, and red cloth.

The door they entered had a red carpet that led to the receptionist office while there were 3 golden pillars on each side of the carpet that supported the roof. There were adventurers talking amongst each other silently at golden desks or by the edges of the room.

The receptionist office was a bunker shaped and had stairs that surrounded it that led to a second floor. They soon arrived at the receptionist office, the receptionist that escorted Jerry turned around and faced him.

“You will be provided temporary lodging for the duration of the duel. You can place your stuff there and then go to the field with your weapons”

The receptionist then turned around and faced the one at the desk and spoke with them before turning and walking up the stairs.

“Follow me, Jerry” the receptionist said.

Jerry followed obediently with his backpack on, weighing on him.

They walked down a marble floor with golden walls and red drapes that decorated the hall. Both of them then stood outside the door room number ‘501’ and the receptionist then opened the door.

“This is your room. Please hurry and come back. I will be waiting in the lobby of the Residential Wing” The receptionist said as they walked away.

Jerry entered the room and set his backpack down, releasing Jerry of a large stress that he had been carrying. However, Jerry had no time to rest and went to work. He took the fabricator out and opened it.

Jerry had to think of a weapon he could use since lethal blows weren’t allowed. Then he remembered, that this isn’t Larmen and he was wearing medium gold armor. Jerry quickly decided to make a mace and a police baton. He could use the mace as a initial striker to bring heavy strikes to his armor and then switch to the baton once the man got used to the mace and developed a counter.

It took a while before it came out. During this time, Jerry dumped extra weight. He kept the plate carrier on, fastened the strap on his helmet and removed the magazines from his pouch.

He put the baton in the side of his pants, having the waistband hold the baton, concealing it between his pants and shirt. He then made a shield while he practiced with the mace. The mace was about arm’s length and had a good weight. The weapons had the upside of being made entirely of the metal given to him, but that also was it’s downfall. Jerry didn’t know much about the metal. If anything, the thing might just shatter in his hands as he made the first strike.

Who knows? Maybe it’s gonna be good for him, maybe bad. Jerry took the shield and left the room, down the hall, into the residential hall.

“Are you ready?” The receptionist asked.

“Ready” Jerry responded.

“What are you bringing?”

“This mace, a shield, and a baton in my pants”

The receptionist then went through the door they came from and then to the left side of the hall. As they walked past the hall, many of the adventurers were placing bets, or even just fantasizing about Jerry’s defeat.

As they entered the door, Jerry found it led to the outside and was very spacious and designed like a training hall. There was a small elevation in the center and covered a sizable portion of the area. It was about 20 meters by 20 meters. The entire area seemed to be 40 meters by 40 meters with a 2 meter wall that surrounded the area with weapons and training dummies scattered around the area. On the elevation stood the man in full armor, top to bottom with gold. His armor covered a large part of his body as it covered his outer arms, his entire chest, and legs. There were however openings on the joints of the armor.

Jerry stepped on the elevation on the opposite side of the man.

“Larry! I thought you ran for a moment” The man said.

“Could’ve. Chose not to”

“Ha! Well, I guess it is rude for me not to introduce myself. I am Kopes, the Kingdom’s Guild Master for this area”

“My name is Larry, Rank E adventurer for now”

“Ha! I like your attitude. Now, let’s fight!” The guild master said as he put on a golden helmet and got into a fighting stance.

“As you wish”

The receptionist then got onto the elevation between the two of them and raised their hands.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a duel between Guild Master Kopes and Adventurer Larry! Guild Master Kopes will be using his prized longsword and armor Divine Gold while Larry will use a Orchalium Mace, Shield, and small baton in his pants!” The receptionist said.

The crowd let out an ‘ooh’ and small snickers as the receptionist said that.

“Let the fight begin!”

Jerry sighed and got into a fighting stance, angling his shield in front of him to bounce any surprise attacks and held his mace to his side. Jerry held his shield in his left hand in front of him and held the mace in a position that could strike from the bottom, top, or side. The guild master held his sword in front of him, with two hands, but there was a problem with his stance. The sword was too close to himself to serve as any protection and held no way for an attack with his sword. There was about 10 meters between him and Jerry and they both started to move towards each other.

“Fireball!” The guild master shouted.

A small ball of flame approached Jerry causing him to side step to the left. The guild master however took that and ran towards Jerry, with a mighty leap into the air, putting him at a position to bring the sword down into Jerry’s skull. Jerry followed his natural instinct and jumped to the side, barely avoiding death as dust rose as the guild master’s strike connected with the ground.

“Ha! That too much for you?” The guild master taunted.

“Almost. Ready for my turn?” Jerry asked as he recovered his stance.

The guild master snorted as he got into the same position.

“When you’re ready”

Jerry took several steps forward, now giving about 5 foot between the two as Jerry formulated his plans.

He tossed the mace towards the Jerry’s left side to the guild master, causing the guild master to strike at the mace, breaking it but leaving him very open. With this opportunity, Jerry struck the guild master in the helmet with his shield, causing him to recoil from the strike. Jerry then grabbed the baton in the side of his pants, bringing it out into view before slipping to the guild master’s side and striking his back knee, causing him to collapse down to that knee. Jerry quickly smashed his baton to the guild master’s back, causing him to fall on his face, giving Jerry an opportunity to end it.

Jerry pressed on the attack, going for the end by pressing his knees on the guild master’s shoulder and pressing the baton to the back of the guild master’s helmet, pinning him down.

Grunts could be heard from the guild master as he struggled getting Jerry off. There were times he were close but were quickly subdued as Jerry would strike the back of the guild master’s helmet by bringing his baton up and violently bringing it down.

“Gah, I give. You have gotten the best of me, Larry” The guild master said.

Whispers quickly broke out amongst the spectators.

Jerry got off the guild master and quickly collected the major pieces of the broken mace.

“Sorry about your mace. Surprised me” The guild master said as he took his helmet off, recovering from the strikes.

“Sorry about pinning you down that violently. You got a lot of resistance” Jerry said as he put the pieces in the magazine pouches.

“Ha, I might be old, but I’m not weak” The guild master said as he gave a chuckle.

“Guess so. Good fight, Guild Master Kopes”

“Good fight to you, Larry. I have to ask you something Larry. Who are you?”

Jerry picked up the last major piece and examined the damage.

“What do you ever mean, Guild Master Kopes?” Jerry asked.

“There’s no way someone like you would go unnoticed. Who are you?” Kopes asked.

“I’m Larry. That’s all you need to know, Guild Master Kopes” Jerry said as he put the last piece away.

Kopes gave up after he said that.

“Guess you’re someone up there. Besides, it’s not in my authority to pry into someone’s past. Especially since you won and many people join the Adventurer’s Guild to run from their past as well”

“Spot on” Jerry said as he extended his hands to Kopes.

Kopes shook Jerry’s hand with a nice firm grip.

“Keep the room. It’s on me till you die of old age” Kopes said with a smile.

“Thank you. I recommend resting for a while until that concussion wears off”

“I appreciate your consideration, but I must prepare for the Hero’s arrival”

“The Hero?”

“Yes! The slayer of the Demon Lord is coming! Speaking of which, would you like to meet him?”

“Wait, he slayed the Demon Lord?” Jerry asked with concern.

“Yep! He even took back some beautiful babes who also confirmed that he killed him as well! They were part of the 10 Demon Commanders, so it’s gotta be valid info”

‘Bastards’

“I see! Unfortunately, I won’t be here since I need to complete that quest” Jerry said with a large smile. Although Kopes couldn’t see Jerry’s face, he could hear it from the tone of his voice.

“Ah! Yes! As of now, Larry, you have been promoted to Rank A+. You are pretty much better than majority of the people here”

“That was easy. Are you sure that this is all it takes?” Jerry asked.

“Believe me, most of these chumps couldn’t defeat me in 30 years. I’m officially rank A but with the time you took to defeat me, I can assure you, you are a rank A+”

“Thanks I guess. Also, how secure is the residential area of the Adventurer’s Guild?” Jerry asked.

“In out 500 year history, the only time someone broke into our building was when the legendary thief Popeye was active. He was soon caught” Kopes said with a smile.

“Then I leave my items in your care. How far are the Blackridge Bandits?”

“Are you planning on taking them by yourself?”

“Yea”

“You sure you don’t want to have someone else?”

“Mhmm”

“Well, it is recommended, not required. They’re about 20 miles out east. I can show you off. I’ll even provide you a horse if you’d like” Kopes said.

“I’ll take you up on your offer then. But first, I must get something from my room.”

“Alright. I’ll wait for you in the Reception Hall. Don’t take too long though!” Kopes said as Jerry walked away.

As Jerry left, the crowd of spectators quickly dispersed back into what they were doing. Some went back to training while others also went back into the Reception Hall.