Chapter 18: Adventurers Guild (Part 2)

It was just as I remembered. A stone building as prominent as the Town hall or even more. Adventurers didn't care much about aesthetics, except when it came to gear. I guess adventurers think, the higher their rank, the fancier their gear has to be.

Anyway, as expected, the guild house wasn't the fanciest building in the block, nor the tallest, but definitely covered a large area of land. Well, large compared to what other establishments can usually have in a town. A two levels tall building colored over with a simple dark yellow color with a wooden doorway and lighter windows. Adventurers Guild was boldly and beautifully written in red on a wooden board above the door. Under which, Eldaria Branch was written in smaller letters. To top it all off was an upside-down golden sword with silver wings, the symbol of the Hero, alongside the flag of Asella.

As we entered, to our left was the lounge for adventurers, and to our right was the open door that led to all the training grounds owned by the guild, with finally the lobby and management desk right in front of us.

I strayed off a bit to look inside the lounge. The last time I was here there were quite a number of adventures and the bartender could barely keep up with the orders. But now there were just a few adventurers talking among themselves, while the bartender just calmly stood behind the counter wiping glasses. He looked up at me smiling as he recognized me, but said nothing and went back to wiping the glasses.

I joined up with my team as we proceeded to the reception.

"Is that who I think it is?" Said one of the two women receptionists looking over Ren at me.

I waved at them with a smile. "Hello, My name is Liam Everhart."

"Master Everhart, it's an honor to have you here," she exclaimed. Her name tag read 'Lisbeth'

"Please just call me by my name. I am a regular adventurer as well."

"Of course, my apologies."

She then looked at Ren with a straight face as her smile disappeared. "Well, you are back."

Ren just smiled back at her naughtily. "Yes, I am."

She looked away, annoyed, and brought up a piece of paper. "Then I guess you actually got into a team. Glad I can finally get rid of you."

"You never know, Liam here might choose Eldaria as our home base."

She ignored him and immediately turned to me, suddenly her smile was back. "Mr. Everhart please fill out this form as party leader to register your team as a party."

There was clearly some tension between those two, but I decided not to ask. Yet. At least not in front of her.

I filled in the details and turned back to the others. Ren standing right next to me filled up his details, as did Elaina and Sylvie. I looked for Luca, who seemed interested and distracted by the training grounds, so I had to call out to him.

As Ren had predicted, I did put in Eldaria as our home base, but the receptionist girl, Lisbeth showed no reaction to it.

"The guild seems kind of empty for a busy day. What's going on?" Ren asked as I returned the paper.

"Yes, it was nice and peaceful all morning until you arrived." She replied with a retort.

Ouch. Even Elaina was somehow stifling her laughter.

Lisbeth then turned to us ignoring Ren again. "Lots of monster activity around Korben. Royal contracts are in as well. High and low. Many adventurers are heading over there from all over to join in."

"But Eldaria is nowhere close to Korben, why then?" Elaina pointed out. I guess she did do her own research on Asella as well.

"The Legion of Light has also been heading out for Korben since last night. So most adventurers just hitched a ride with them." She replied.

Legion of Light? Things must be pretty serious down at Korben. Is my father also...? No, this girl won't be the right person to ask that.

"Are you two exes?" Sylvie asked abruptly.

Ren's eyes widened as he laughed at the sudden question. As he calmed down, he replied with a smirk. "Not yet."

Lisbeth sighed and glanced at Sylvie. "I'll die before being seen with this guy anywhere. He is very selfish, arrogant, over-confident, and strong. Lower ranks like slate, bronze, and sometimes silver get very few decent quests for solo adventurers or smaller parties. He takes all of them by himself, leaving nothing other than menial tasks for other adventurers. How do you think he advanced so quickly? He practically sits there staring at the reception all day, waiting to pounce onto any request that involves combat, exploring, or investigating. I can't even get him to party up with other adventurers to share the request. The most annoying thing is how he immediately comes back with proof of completion and ready to get the next one."

She sighed heavily as her rant ended, clearly, she had been having a tough time. Poor girl.

Ren looked away and waved her off in a fake show of embarrassment. "Aww, you praise me too much."

She smiled at him kindly. "How about I choke the life out of you and watch you enjoy that?"

Ren looked back at her excited and overjoyed. "You'll do that for me?! Ahh, your soft beautiful hands around my neck, choking me... A death worthy of the heavens!!!"

"See?!" Lisbeth looked at us, defeated. Elaina nodded along as if she was well used to guys like Ren.

Ren laughed along for a moment, satisfied with the reaction he got, but then his expression got mildly serious as he turned back to our receptionist. "Registration is done. We are all here. I hope you got something good for us. As a team this time."

Lisbeth straightened her expression too and pulled a sheet of paper from under the desk. "I don't usually do this, but even I'd want the Lord Everhart's son to have a productive first quest. A high bronze rank monster hunt quest, as per your request. If you would like, there are also silver rank quests available on the quest board."

Luca who had again wandered away to the training grounds, at last, returned standing by the quest board; checking out the silver rank section. "There seem to be some decent combat quests for silver as well."

"True, why the bronze rank quest then? We are all silver already." Elaina fairly pointed out.

Ren leaned back against the desk. "I know, I know. But this is important too, our first quest together. We gotta understand each other's fighting style, adapt, and come up with combat formations and stuff. Two vanguards, one close-range slayer, one healer, and one ranger. On paper we are the perfect team; now we just need to figure out the synergy. An easier quest will help us focus on these more, instead of the quest itself."

Sylvie was visibly impressed. "You are kinda reliable, aren't you?"

"Kinda? I'm hurt... So, what do you think, leader? You good with this?" he asked showing me the paper.