Chapter 11: chapter 11: Dungeon dive.
The blond desk girl looked up from some papers she was reading at Elrica and asked. "will this be your first time registering?"
When a person joined the adventureres guild they became an iron rank adventurer. Iron rank adventureres weren't considered as full fledged adventureres and had a monthly quota of quests they had to complete, if they failed to do so they would stop being adventureres and would have to register and begin from the beginning once more.
Registering for the first time was free however subsequent registrations involved a fee. Luckily this was Elrica's first time otherwise she would be unable to join due to her penniless state.
"Yes, this is my first time." Elrica answered.
In response the desk woman nodded and brought out a blue crystal and put it on the table.
'This must be an {Appraisal} crystal.' Elrica thought.
In this world there were certain crafting skills that allowed individuals to imbue objects with skills although such a task was usually quite difficult.
The {Appraisal} skill was one that allowed it's user to gleam information about things they used it on, the higher it's level the more useful it became as it showed more and more valuable information.
But at low levels it was among the most useless skills a person could posses. That along with it's high cost of 100 skill points, detured most people from getting the actual skill, instead they opted to use crystals imbued with the skill.
"Please place your hand on the crystal." The desk woman said.
Elrica had no other way of quickly gathering currency and getting stronger so she reluctantly placed her hand on the crystal.
The desk woman looked at the information displayed and paused for just a moment before writing down Elrica's information on a paper and handed Elrica a thin necklace with a small iron plate hanging off it.
"There are a few guides present if you would like to get familiar with the labyrinth." The desk woman said and Elrica nodded.
The so called labyrinth was a gigantic monster den that was outside Aldia and shared in it's name.
The reception woman called over a man wearing full metal armour who was sitting by himself.
"Mr. Slayer would you mind showing our new member miss Elrica a little around the labyrinth?"
The man nodded and said to Elrica "follow me."
Elrica followed the man outside. The man walked to a carriage parked Infront of the guild that had a few other adventureres already sitting on it.
Flashing his silver necklace to the driver. He got on. Elrica did the same with her iron one and got on as well.
A blonde adventurer sitting next to Slayer spoke to him with a mocking smile. "So Slayer, heading to labyrinth today as well?"
Elrica's guide stayed silent.
"We're heading down to the middle layer today, would you like to tag along? Or are you going to stay on the outskirts like usual?" The man said with a mocking smile and a few other adventureres who seemed to be part of his group laughed out loud.
The man remained silent and ignored the blonde adventurer.
The blond man's smile melted into a frown and he said seriously "You're a silver rank adventurer, don't you feel ashamed for crowding in with the newbies?"
The man stayed silent once again and the blonde man said no more. The carriage led them out of the city and towards a fortress with high walls.
The fortress was absolutely crawling with soldiers wearing white armours. And many groups of adventurers wearing different gear and carrying different weapons.
Following behind her armoured guide Elrica appraised him, He was a short man wearing heavy armour and carrying a short sword at his side.
His armour was chipped and scratched in most places and he wore a helmet that completely hid his face. His presence was different to most of the other adventureres that walked by them, his figure was more lonely and he had yet to speak more than two words to Elrica.
Elrica was more familiar with this type of person, it would surely take him no time to blend in with the denizens of the spectral world.
Walking into the fortress, it surrounded a gaping hole in the ground that adventureres walked into and crawled out of.
Picking up a torch from a pile outside the entrance, the man lit it and handed an unlit one to Elrica and they walked in.
"Stay close." He said and Elrica walked closer to him with her hand on her sword.
After walking for a few more minutes, Elrica and Slayer encountered their first monster. From the darkness a purple frog stepped into the light of their torch.
The frog was the size of a dog and it's body dripped with purple poison as it approached.
"Stay vigilant." Slayer said before approaching the frog. The frog unleashed it's tongue at lightning speed at him and Slayer dodged with a roll.
Taking the opportunity to close the distance, Slayer counter attacked as he slashed it's body powerfully making it's blood splatter as it fell to the floor.
"Purple poison frogs, very common in the Aldia labyrinth, as long as you're quick on your feet they won't pose an issue in one on one encounters, the only valuable part of their bodies is the poison sack in their lower abdomens." Saying that, Slayer took out a knife and flipped over the frog with his leg.
Plunging the knife into its abdomen it didn't take him long to extract a small purple sack from the frog's abdomen and showing it to Elrica before throwing it aside.
"This is just a small expedition to get you familiar with the basics so we won't be collecting any parts. Would you like to take the lead on the next monster that shows up?"
Elrica nodded and unsheathed her sword.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone