Chapter 11: Gathering Information
We woke up, and had breakfast at the bar under the inn. While we did so, we planned what we would do from here on out.
"We need to get skills" is the first thing that Little Rat suggested
"You think? we did pretty well without them" i answered
"Yeah, although we can fight without skills, it's more efficient to use them, less energy is wasted. I investigated, although watch we did the other day can be considered skills, they are trash, the skills you buy and learn, have been refined for hundreds of years, and countless genius and warriors, of course many people take the skills as a base to create their own personalized versions of them, the one that suits them the best" he rambled.
"Alright, if you suggest it so strongly, let's go get some skills" I answered smiling. Seems that Lana really awed him with the skills she used.
"But they are expensive, I don't know if we can afford them" he answered guiltily.
"We have around 17G right now. Did you sell the materials we got from the monster the other day" i ask
"I did, we got 8G for all the materials, they were the weakest type of beast after all"
"So around 25G in total, we still have paid for 20 more days in the inn, so that's not a problem for now. Let's go see how much they cost at least" i suggest.
And like that we left the inn, going to the High End Merchant's Street.
We entered a random small store that had some skill books in their front.
As we start looking at the prices our hearts wince.
Flaming Sword Skill Book: 47G
Earthen Shield Skill Book: 42G
Water Heal Skill Book: 62G
Ice Arrow Skill Book: 620G
Elemental Ball Skill Book: 35G
These were all the books for sale in the store, they are out of our reach.
"Lets ask the shopkeeper how they are categorized and the like, we need to learn more before buying them anyway" i tell Little Rat with a stiff smile.
"Yeah…" he answered crestfallen
We approach the old shopkeeper, to talk
"Excuse me, I would like to ask some questions about skills, is that alright?'' I ask respectfully.
"New graduates i see" he answers with a chuckle
"Yes, would you answer some of our questions?"
"You're wasting your time asking me, is best if you just go to the Adventurer Association, after you register, you will gain access to the basic info that any adventurer needs, including skills"
""Thank you very much, do you know where the Association is?" i ask next
"At the end of the High End Merchant's Street, you just need to keep walking west, you can't miss it" he replies
We left the shop and made our way there, at the end of the street, a huge building with the plaque AA is standing, swarms of people coming and going from their doors.
"Seems like we really need to learn more about the world" chirps Little Rat.
"Seems so" I answered.
We ask one of the guards,where is the registration for new adventurers, he points us in the direction of a small desk in the corner of the hall.
We head there and join the small queue, apparently only the graduates from our batch are registering at the moment, and most of them already did in the days prior.
Minutes later, we are greeted by a young girl at the counter.
"Hello, you must be graduates from the Elementalist School, right" she ask with a smile
"Yes, we were told that it was a good idea to register here, but we don't know much of what that entails and what is a good idea to join, can you tell us?" I tell her honestly.
"No problem, it's like this, the Adventurer Association is a Organization created many years ago by several powerful Elementalist that didn't belong to any power, they were free spirits that didnt like to be tied down, so they created a loose organization for people like them to exchange information, and help each other" se says in one quick breath, it seems she has told this story many times.
"That's how it all started, but with the passage of time, the organization grew big and powerful, and even people of the organizations started to join either for information or extra resources. At the start only people from small organizations joined but as time passed, those from the big guys started to want to join as well. As the leaders didn't want to start a conflict,they changed the regulations of the Association, making it the gathering place of those valiant Adventurers who dare to head out into the wild for resources or power. They started to accept and post missions of different people, big powers and small alike, charging a commission for doing so, as the time passed, the association became a way to regulate and commission works to adventurers, becoming one of the biggest powers in the continent.
As per the wishes of the founders, we have stayed neutral from the power struggles of other organizations and they like it like that. That's how the current association came to be, most people register to gain information on missions that pay good money, the latest news of happenings in the continent, to form parties and groups, so that they could take bigger jobs, etc."
"So we can take jobs, but what is the difference from just hunting and selling the spoils, the Association even takes a cut" I asked confused.
"The missions the association posts are from different places, many times what's cheap here is expensive elsewhere, that is a part of it, aside from that, if someone needs something urgently or a certain beast to be killed because it's a threat they will pay more for it. That is also just part of the jobs there are available, scorting merchants, picking up herbs, protecting someone, etc. There are many jobs that you wouldn't get without the Associations involvement"
"Alright, we would like to join please" I say after understanding.
"Please fill out this form with your information, it's just the basics, like name, level, etc. After you level up, you can inform us, so that better mission will be available for you, of course the bigger part of your mission acces comes from the rank that you have in the Association, it starts from F going through E, D, C, B and A rank tbeing the highest. of course sometimes rank doesn't represent power and power isn't represented by rank" she explains while we fill out the forms.
"Alright, you're all set up, here are your badges, signifying your rank, please take care of them, if you lose them you're gonna have to pay to replace it, and without it, you can't take missions" she says as she hands us a pair of crystal badges of brow color.
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