Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

"Welcome to the Pelith Adventurer's Guild. Are you here to submit a work completion form or do you need to sell materials?" a plain looking woman said who was standing behind a short wooden counter.

Then entire first floor of the building was an open concept and at the far end taking about a quarter of the length of the back wall was a wooden u-shaped counter. There were about ten receptionists lined along the counter and each one had a line. Lucius and Rena had to wait for almost a half hour just to get up to the desk.

"No, we are here to join up as new adventurers." Rena stated with an equal lack of energy as the receptionist had.

The woman sighed which was followed by a cacophony of groans from behind them as the others in line shifted to other lines. The receptionist pulled out a few documents and put them in two neat piles next to each other.

"First fill those out. If you can't read, then it will be two copper pieces for me to help you one on one, if you can, then just fill them out here. I will step away to locate a proctor."

Lucius and Rena each took a packet of documents as well as a quill each to begin filling out the forms.

They asked simple things like name, race, Arts, magic, and also mark. That last one was the latest addition they had only been asking for during the last couple of years. Prior to that, Marked Ones were not allowed to register as full-fledged adventurers. Outside of private employment with nobles or extremely wealthy merchant families, Marked Ones of age to be an adventurer were already conscripted.

Lucius easily filled out the documents on his own thanks to the fact that his mother and father were adamant that he learn how to read and do basic math, like addition and subtraction.

Rena also knew how to fill out the forms because she was a noble. The other pages were filled with the documents only applicable to children of nobles that consisted of a bunch of agreements promising the families of any nobility that died while adventuring would not seek out damages against the institution.

These obviously did not apply to Lucius, but they did for Rena, so it took her a few extra minutes to read through them all. While they were working through the paperwork, the receptionist's 'search' for their exam proctor consisted of her shouting out several times if someone of Advance Rank or higher was interested in doing it.

Lucius hoped that in larger cities, the guild had actual designated staff to do such a thing, but something also told him that was not really a likely scenario. A young, adult woman…maybe just around twenty, ended up being the person to volunteer.

She was dressed as your typical adventurer, in a mix of leather armor and a smattering of metal plating over the important bits. The outfit was protective, but still kept many of her joints just clear enough to not hinder any freedom of movement.

Honestly, to Lucius, she was a rather attractive young woman, though the massive sword on her back that felt like it was as tall as he was, kept him from having any hormone driven thoughts…mostly.

"Heya brats. Looks like I'll be in charge of your exam. The name's Jen. As you can tell by the weapon on my back, I use the two-handed version of Sword Arts."

"My name is Lucius. And this is Rena."

"A pleasure, Jen." Rena acknowledged with a curtsy.

"Eh cut that shit out. I recognize the hair from the lords house, but quit it with the manners here. You leave the noble shit at the door. Got it?" Jen huffed.

"Right." Rena answered resolutely.

Next, they turned in their papers to the receptionist and went to follow Jen into another room, where she explained the ins and outs of the way things work. Were they to pass their exams and be accepted into the guild, the rules would be a good thing to be aware of.

Apparently, the way ranking worked in the guild was very easy. Your guild rank matched your warrior or mage ranking. Essentially if you were a Master Rank swordsman, you were considered a Master Rank adventurer.

Most jobs and quests to hunt down ingredients and monsters were also not locked down by rank. So, if a Novice Rank kid wanted to track down an S-Rank monster, the guild would let them sign up for it. If they wised up and quit before dying, they would pay a fee to the guild, and if they died…well natural selection took its course.

Next, when completing a quest, an adventurer was not allowed to ask clients for additional rewards, monetary or otherwise, outside what was promised in the initial posting. Such behavior would result in the placement of a bounty for either capture or killing depending on the severity. Gifts of gratitude were an exemption from this rule.

Thirdly, any items or resources found or obtained through the process of completing a quest belonged to the adventurer and their party. This meant any monster materials, rare alchemical ingredients, or items found belonged to the guild. Of course this did not apply if the quest were to have been for the specific procurement of those items, in which keeping them would result in charges of theft.

The last few things were relatively simple; don't steal quests, money, or items from other adventurers, don't attack other adventurers, and don't 'camp' on quests. 'Camping' on a quest was when someone would register for a quest then wait out the deadline to prevent someone else from taking it. Experienced adventurers have done this to bully weaker ones by making them lose out on jobs.

"…And that about sums it all up. It make sense to you two?" Jen said with a wave of her hand. She sat in a chair across from them at a circular table while explaining the ins and outs of how the place worked. In one hand was a mug of ale that she occasionally sipped from and the other she had some strange smelling jerky.

Lucius had killed some of his sense of smell to be able to handle being around so many sweaty warriors and dead carcasses that were being harvested, but he could still smell the strange odor wafting from the oddly purple cured meat that Jen was happily munching on.

"Yeah that makes sense to me…though I do have one question." Rena answered.

"Shoot, kid."

"What is that you are eating? It looks odd."

"Smells like ass…" Lucius mumbled.

"Oh? You can smell it? Must be part beastman then." Jen laughed as she waved the meat around with her hand. "This here is Swamp Rat jerky. The curing process takes away most of the odor of the meat, at least enough of it to not bother humans and elves. Tastes like shit, but you won't find a better food to restore mana."

"Most of the odor?" Rena asked while patting Lucius on the back. He was probably seconds from vomiting if Jen kept waving it around like that.

"Yeah for some reason, beastmen hate the stuff. From lupines and felines, to rhino and reptilian beastmen, it drives all of them up the wall." Jen laughed again, before she tossed the jerky across the room. It made a large arc and landed right into a garbage container that was set up at the end of the bar on the opposite side of the building.

"Thank you." Lucius sighed.

"Sure, kid. Shoulda' guessed 'cus of those freaky eyes you got. Anyway…for your exam you are going to tell me your ranks then you are gonna prove them to me by hunting down a monster of my choosing. Pass, you get a card. Fail, you pay a gold to the guild the next time you waste our time."

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