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Of Arms and Arcane: Chapter 107
🕑 Added 2024-06-22 07:46:24 +0000 UTCAfter lunch, Dave and Sam brought me to the Adventurer's Guild, and it was just like how I imagined it, there were loud and rowdy people chatting, shouting, and laughing while day drinking.
Further in the back, there were people gathered around multiple notice boards that had what I assumed to be posted jobs, and lastly, to the side of the boards was a row of receptionists behind their counter attending to lines of Adventurers turning in their jobs to get paid.
I had only heard descriptions of this place from my family and some of my Dad’s men, but it was everything and more than I had imagined from the stories I read in my previous life.
It was a pity there was no guild branch in my hometown of Glenfell, we were just too small and unimportant to have a dedicated guild branch, the closest thing we had was a job posting board outside the mayor’s office that passing adventurers would take a look at.
I was broken out of my gawking by Sam who nudged me and led me to join the queue of adventurers.
Eventually, it was our turn and we were greeted by a pretty and rather buxom woman who looked to be in her mid-30s, “Well hello there boys, what can I do for you?” the woman said as she folded her arms under her bust to emphasize them while giving us what I think is a predatory smile.
Alarms went off in my head as I could almost hear the woman’s thoughts going ‘Ara Ara’, and if she starts to get handsy with us, I am going to need to call this world’s version of the FBI, if they even have one.
As I turned, I noticed Dave and Sam blush as they tried to look away from the woman’s chest, a voice from behind us in the queue shouted, “What the hell Verona? Why don’t we get greeted like that?!”
This was echoed by a chorus of other men shouting, “Yeah!”, “No fair!”, “Where is our service?!”
“Shut it! Why would I provide my premium service to you ugly lot, you are not even cute!” the woman known as Verona shouted back at the jeering men.
The man who first called out Verona clapped his hands on our shoulders like a protective parent ready to guide their children away from suspicious people, and said in an exaggerated mocking voice, “If that's the case, us men, as these boys seniors, it is our duty to keep their virtue intact and protect them from the predations of cradle snatchers like you!” this was met with a raucous laughing agreement from the men around.
“Don’t you dare!” Verona shouted as she threw a paperweight at the man holding us, the man ducked and ran while laughing.
Verona fixed her hair and straightened her shirt, and then her attention was on us again, “Don’t listen to those idiots. So, what can I help you boys with today?”
Dave was the first to snap out of what just happened and said while gesturing to me, “Emm… We are here to register our friend here with a probationary license.”
Verona nodded and pulled up a piece of paper and an inkwell, “Seeing as you boys are in Royal Academy uniform, I take it you can write?” she asked me and I nodded.
“Good, please fill out this form, and don’t hesitate to ask if you need help.”
It was a basic form, name, age, date of birth, country/region of origin, next of kin, that kind of stuff. When I was done, I handed the form over for Verona to give it a once-over.
The moment she started reading, I could see her eyes widen, and I could only assume it was because I had a family name that marked me as a noble, not that anyone would know because I was not wearing my uniform with my house’s crest on it, but she immediately schooled her expression and kept reading.
“Luke Ironcrest.” Verona said softly as she leaned in, “I think you made a mistake when filling in your age, you wrote down 8 years old.”
I just nodded, “No mistake, I am 8 years old, see my date of birth.”
After a few seconds of my words sinking into their brains, Dave and Sam said ““What!””
“But how? You are wearing the uniform for higher education students like us, and also as tall as us.” Sam asked.
I just shrugged and said, “I took a test from the Royal invigilator and passed, so I could skip lower education.”
Verona then cleared her throat to get our attention, “So, do you confirm that all details are given are accurate to the best of your knowledge?” she asked in a more professionally than before, to which I nodded and she stood up, asked us to wait and walked into the back with my form.
After a few minutes of waiting and answering Dave and Sam’s questions about how I skipped grades, Verona came back with a wooden tag identical to the ones Dave and Sam showed me.
“Congratulations on joining the Adventurers Guild as a probationary member, while you are still a probationary member, you are restricted to non-combat jobs within a half day’s journey of any Adventurers Guild branch, if you are going on a non-combat job beyond the half day’s journey, you will need to be accompanied by a full member, repeated failure to adhere to the rules will result in the revocation of your probationary license and you will not be allowed join as a full member when you turn 16.” Verona briefed as she went on about other rules.
When she was done, Verona looked us up and down, this time not in a predatory way, “You boys got weapons and armor? Even if you are doing non-combat jobs, that does not mean there would not be a danger.”
I turned to Dave and Sam, “You guys got any armor?” I asked, but they shook their heads, “We returned ours before school started.” I gave them a questioning look about what they meant by saying they returned their armor but left it for later, I then replied to Verona, “We got weapons but no armor.”
She nodded and asked us to follow her, we moved to a side hallway left the side door of the guild, and entered an unassuming armorer's shop.
At the counter of the shop, was a gruff middle-aged man who nodded at Verona in greeting, “Verona, what do we have here? New blood?”
Verona nodded, “Need you to outfit these boys.”
The man called us up to his counter, eyeballed us, went into his back room, and came back with three sets of very used leather armor, “Alright boys.” the man said, “Here is how this works, the Adventurers Guild will loan you this armor for a month with the downpayment if one silver, if you return the armor in good condition at the end of the month, we will return your downpayment. So, do you boys have a silver? If not you can have the guild put down your downpayment first and pay them back with a percentage of your job earnings.”
Fortunately, Dave and Sam knew what was coming and had the funds prepared ahead of time, as for me, I always carry a few gold worth of currency just in case.
After everything was settled, we bid Verona and the middle-aged man, who we did not get the name of, and I agreed to meet Dave and Sam for breakfast before we went on our first job.
