Chapter 75: Registered As Adventurers

"I can’t believe Lady Sinclair promoted us to C-rank immediately after registering for the association."

"I did not expect she would go this far, Alina. To think that the imperial family has so much influence they could overwrite some rules of an organization that operates on a global scale."

Coming out of the doors to the Adventurer’s Association director’s office, which is on the third floor, Azrael and Alina stop along the corridor to look at a piece of rectangular metal on their own palm.

These are the identification tags of an adventurer. It has the same size as the identification cards but thinner. On the card, their names are written there along with their rank in a bigger font at the center of the card.

The ranks are actually not written in the Earth’s alphabet script, as it does not exist in this world. God’s Tongue just translates whatever he reads into the language he knows. It also applies to what he heard before, like the tiers of the magic spells. Regardless of what language, the rankings still represent the first letters of this world’s scripture.

"Now that we have officially become adventurers, how about we take our first quest together, Alina?"

"If that’s what you want, master."

"No, no. Stop calling me that in public. I want you to address me by my name. Didn’t we discuss it earlier?"

Realizing that they would be in public more, Azrael has told Alina to stop calling him master anymore. He thinks that people might get the wrong assumptions about him. It might ruin his name, which would ruin his plan for his quest of seeking answers to his reincarnation.

In order to avoid that, as well as to strengthen his relationship with her, Azrael begs Alina to stop treating him like some sort of a local lord. They are in a relationship, so Azrael thinks that they should treat each other equally.

"I seem to forget it... Azrael." As per his request, Alina addresses Azrael by his name, which makes him smile in satisfaction. "Should we take a quest of our level or should we try to evaluate ourselves first with quests of lower rank?"

"We’ll see it once we get there."

◆◇◆◇◆◇

After the pair then descends to the first floor of the association, immediately approach the boards where quests are posted by the association staff. Every rank has its own board, and Azrael and Alina are standing in front of the board of C-rank quests.

There are a handful of papers on the board, which show the details of the quest as well as a few illustrations and the threat level of the monsters involved. Based on how identical the fonts and illustrations are in every paper, Azrael can assume that printing has been invented in this world.

"Isn’t C-rank the yellow rank?"

"That’s right."

Aside from letters, adventurer ranks are also determined by colors, specifically, the shades of magic cores. Azrael immediately understands that the association chose this because the hue of a magic core speaks for its power.

In this world, adventurers are divided by seven ranks. After registration, adventurers start at the rank of F or the white rank. White represents a fully depleted magic core; hence, the lowest rank.

Followingly, adventurers rank up to E or red rank, then D or orange rank, C or yellow, B or green rank, A or blue rank, and finally, the supreme rank, also known as the purple rank.

As an adventurer gains more credits and achievements, they will be promoted to higher ranks. However, feats are not enough to rank up. An adventurer has to reach the required strength or mana capacity for the promotion, having the same magic core as the rank as preferred. They should have the power to handle more difficult tasks.

"Almost all of the quests involve a monster or two, but it is mostly material gathering in the dungeon rather than subjugation."

"Adventurers mainly explore dungeons to hunt monsters for their materials," Alina responds. "Other jobs like escorting or monster subjugation requested by civilians are the responsibilities of knights and mercenaries."

Most of the nations in this world mainly follow that kind of framework. Works are required to be done cleanly and correctly, so organizations, including the mercenary association and a nation’s military, collectively agree to assign what kind of works each of them should take.

"Is that so? Well, I think Carlene explained that earlier. It’s my fault for forgetting that."

Once Alina clears up his wondering, Azrael eyes the quest board anew. Even though there are different quests for different monsters, those monsters are mostly in the dungeon under the city. The posters mostly list monsters with materials of high demand.

Regardless, it doesn’t actually matter whatever adventurers pick, as they would kill every monster they cross paths with. The posters are pinned there for the adventurers to see their values and a little information about them, as well as to control the supply of seemingly infinite materials taken out of the dungeon.

"I guess we should go hunt for redfur monkeys today. They fetch a high price and are located on the middle floors of the imperial dungeon. What do you think about it, Alina?"

"I see no problem with it. I think reaching the third floor is reasonable for our first day of being adventurers, though the magic cores we would harvest are far from your average daily haul hunting sea monsters."

"It’s better than nothing. Besides, we need to know how much money we can earn in one day."

"If you say so."

The pair then exit the building and walk their way to the dungeon.

◆◇◆◇◆◇

Somewhere over the sea, under the blazing sun, a fleet of warships is sailing westwards. Dozens of vessels carrying the flag of the Tixiar Empire are currently traveling to their allied nation, the Kingdom of Roheazul, carrying tens of thousands of personnel.

Amongst the dozens of well-engineered ships, one ship stands out among the rest. With a hull made out of metal and ornamented with golden accents, everyone would recognize that the vessel in the center of the fleet is the flagship, where the commander of this fleet boards.

Inside the captain’s cabin of the flagship, there is a pair of a man and a woman. The man is sitting on his desk while the woman is leaning against the wall beside a circular window of the cabin.

"Over a week in the sea, huh? I don’t think I can endure this seasickness for that amount of time."

The woman mutters as her crimson eyes are coldly staring at the waves outside with her arms crossed. She is the type of person who is not fond of the nauseating motions of being in the sea. Her long and straight black hair sways as the waves gently rock the ship.

"You’ll get used to it in no time, Lady Nerra. You are a Paragon after all."

The bald, red-bearded, middle-aged man expresses his reassurance. His striking red uniform adorned with stripes and badges speaks to his authority on this ship. He is undoubtedly the admiral of this fleet.

"Even a Paragon cannot adapt to every environment so soon, Admiral Bardroux, at least mentally."

"But you have to admit that traveling in the sea is better and more comfortable than on land."

"En masse, obviously. But I prefer traveling in the air the most."

"It is too bad that airships are not meant for long voyages." The admiral dismisses her hopes. "Nevertheless, I am still wondering why the emperor wants to send a Paragon on this mission. No offense, but my fleet is enough to fend off the Siafran forces in the kingdom."

The woman is one of the Paragons of the Tixiar Empire, a powerful unit secretly working directly under the emperor. Since the beginning of the voyage, it has not been revealed to Admiral Bardroux what is the purpose of a Paragon boarding his ship.

"Hmph. It seems like you know a little about the Siafran Empire."

"Oho? Enlightened me."

"You see, there is said to be a powerful awakener in Siafran that is hiding from the public. This person is assumed to have strength that rivals a Paragon."

"I guess you are sent to deal with it, yes?"

"Exactly. I’ll deal with the rat escaping out the fire."

"I see." The man nods. "But that can’t be the only reason. I can feel it."

"You are sharp, admiral," Nerra smirks. "I hate to break it to you. But as His Majesty’s will, I cannot reveal that to anyone. It is highly confidential."

"If it’s the emperor’s will, then I, a fleet admiral, can’t help it." After letting out a sigh, Bardroux leans further on his seat.

"Now then," the Paragon then straightens her back before she walks toward the door. "Let me take the fresh sea breeze outside. Also, take care of the gigalodon two leagues from here."

"A gigalodon is nothing to my fleet."

"I’ll see you later."

Thud.

Nerra shuts the door close, and silence fills the captain’s cabin. The fleet quickly disposes of the gigantic sea monsters without slowing their voyage to the Kingdom of Roheazul.