After examining me for a while, his face lit up in realization. “Well, I’ll be damned. You sure have grown. You’re that one kid from way back, aren’t you? Noor, was it?”
“That’s me,” I replied.
To my surprise, he’d remembered me. By name, no less.
The receptionist girl, who’d been anxiously watching our exchange, looked between us, a perplexed expression on her face. “Um, is this man an acquaintance of yours?” she asked the guildsman.
“Yeah. Something like that. You can leave him to me now, Aria. Go find some other work to do.”
“R-Right away!”
We watched as the girl moved to another counter and started helping the other visitors, then the man turned back to me, his cheerfulness at complete odds with his demeanor just a short moment ago. “Sorry about that. Remembering faces is supposed to be part of my job. That said, you’re nothing like how I remember. You hit a pretty big growth spurt, eh?”
“Don’t sweat it,” I replied, smiling. “It’s been over a decade. To be honest, I’m amazed you even remembered my name.”
“Ha! ’Course I remember. I couldn’t forget if I wanted to. One stint at a training school is rough enough for an adult, but a little kid comes along and sticks it out for an entire term at all six, and without learning a single skill to boot? You were the first to manage it, and you’ll be the last too. Then you up and vanished into thin air. Didn’t hear a word of you from nowhere, so I’d figured for sure that you’d kicked the bucket. What’ve you been up to this whole time?” He paused, scratching his head. “Actually, never mind. Forget I asked. Don’t mean to pry.”
He sounded curious about what I’d been up to since leaving the capital. I had no reason to keep it a secret, so I told him about how I’d returned to my home on the mountain and continued my training alone.
“What? You’re not seriously telling me you spent more than fifteen years training alone to get a skill, are you? I’ve never heard of anybody thickheaded enough to—” He stopped mid-sentence, seeming to reconsider. “Actually, I guess you really would do something like that.”
Then, somewhat hesitantly, he continued, “So...what skills did you get?”
“I didn’t get any,” I answered honestly.
Yes, in the end, I hadn’t learned any new skills. My instructors had been right to tell me that I didn’t have any talents.
“Well, that figures. Royal training school instructors don’t get to where they are by looking pretty. People call this city the Adventurer’s Holy Land, and even then, they’re the best of the best. There ain’t much they get wrong. I’m sorry to say it, but if they said you don’t cut it, then, well...that’s that.”
“Yeah. I don’t. I trained pretty desperately in my own way, but it was no use.”
There’s a certain feeling that passes through a person’s body when they develop a skill; I’d found that out when developing my rudimentary ones at the training schools. But after leaving the royal capital, I’d never felt it again. In other words, I hadn’t developed any new skills.
Still, all things considered, I was sure that I’d made a really good effort...
“Well, don’t let it get to you,” the guildsman said. “Not everything in life’s smooth sailing. There are so many things you can do other than being an adventurer. But, wait...you know that already. So that makes me wonder, why did you come here? Don’t tell me this registration form here on the desk is yours.”
“It is. Despite everything, I still want to be an adventurer. I know I’m asking for the impossible, but isn’t there some way to make it happen?”
“Hold on. You serious?” He frowned at me for a moment before shaking his head, resigned. “Fine, fine. I take my job seriously though, so you’re getting the rundown from scratch.”
Then, rubbing at the hair on his grizzled head, the guildsman began to explain.
“First things first: adventuring is a job for those after something high risk, high reward; those who are sure of their own abilities; and those who are just plain weird and get a kick out of danger. Sign up at your own peril. You’ll make forays into areas inhabited by monsters, undertake reconnaissance of criminal hideouts, and, at times, even hunt down bounties. When it comes to adventuring, a profitable job is a dangerous one. Put differently, to be an adventurer is to break bread with death every day...but I guess you know that much already.”
“Yeah,” I replied, nodding. “I’m fine with that.” I was already fully aware of everything he was saying.
“Well, long story short, adventuring is a job where you make a point of poking your nose into danger. As such, in the interest of protecting human lives, a set of standards officially recognized by all guilds was established way back. We call these standards ‘ranks,’ and they were set up so there would be fewer idiots slipping up while trying to do the impossible and dying in a ditch somewhere.”
Saying that, he retrieved and then showed me an official rank chart from within the Guild receptionist’s desk.
Official Adventurer Ranks
S-rank (Platinum): Individuals recognized by the Adventurers Guild Association as being of extraordinary ability.
A-rank (Gold): Individuals recognized by officially designated institutions as being exceptionally capable and having notable accomplishments.
B-rank (Silver): Individuals recognized by officially designated institutions as being exceptionally capable and of amazing ability.
C-rank (Bronze): Individuals recognized by the Adventurers Guild Association as being capable and of excellent ability.
D-rank (Iron): Individuals who are of excellent ability as an adventurer.
E-rank (Beginner): Individuals who are of the minimum ability required to become an adventurer.
“As a general rule, there are only five adventurer ranks: A through E,” the guildsman said. “S-rank, or Platinum, does exist, but it’s an honor reserved only for the most exceptional of outliers. Don’t pay it any mind. Now, normally, a person’s rank begins at E and rises up toward A as they complete successful commissions and gain recognition for their abilities...but for that to happen to you, you’ll first need to be recognized as someone who’s ‘of the minimum ability required to become an adventurer.’ Only then can you become an E-rank—a Beginner.”