CH.58 First Rank-Up
Not Rank-Up-Magic
“Now that we have registered you, we need to adjust your rank.” The receptionist said to me. “Please hand over your card.”
Oh yeah, I was F-rank at the moment. I guess after making a new card, anyone would be. I handed my card back over to her. She inserted it into a device that reminded me of a card reader, like the ones you would see in a store. Mine was inserted from the bottom of it, she did something with it and slashed another card in some kind of reader on the side. Approval, I guess.
“Here you go. You are now officially C-rank.” The receptionist told me as she handed me my card back.
“C-rank? I didn’t think it was possible to get a rank that high immediately.” I said.
“We got special permission from the headquarters.” She told me. “But in return, they have requested that you visit either the headquarters or the capital guild.”
“I see. Well, I want to travel around anyway, so I could just visit both.” I answered. “But I don’t know where the ‘headquarters’ are.”
“Oh, they are located in the Hero’s city. Same as the Sage’s Tower and the Head Church.” She informed me. Not that I know where this Hero’s city is. I could ask, but I’ll find out. Eventually. Even Laura might know about it.
(Map information is not available at standard level, unless it’s taken in from an outside source.) Laura told me. So she can learn a map, but can’t access the system maps. Now I want to level her up to advanced even more.
“So… Now that I’m a C-rank, what kind of jobs should I be doing?” I asked.
“Well, this town doesn’t have many C-rank guests to begin with. They are usually emergencies, like a stronger monster appearing. That’s why most high rankers leave this town.” The receptionist informed me.
“You can come with me.” Lucia said to me. “I need to go do some blood draining.”
“Sure, I can do that. But I would like a meal first. I’m hungry.” I answered.
“Makes sense after being out for two days.” Lucia said to me. “Do we still have wyvern meat?” She asked the receptionist.
“Of course. Zayaan made sure we would have some for Brian before he left.” The receptionist answered. Zayaan left? Where?
“Where did Zayaan go?” I asked.
“He went to Sawyer city with Lord Watchman to report the wyvern incident.” The receptionist answered.
“And once again, I’ve managed to steal the guild master.” I sighed.
“Actually, sir Lex came back to act as the guild master temporarily. He was moved by the will of everyone to stand up to multiple wyverns like that, and said he could hold the seat for a few days.” The receptionist informed me. Thank god someone is doing it. And he did seem to be good at it.
“I probably should apologize to him.” I said out loud.
“Did you do something to him?” The receptionist asked.
“You didn’t know? I was the reason he just disappeared.” I told her.
“What did you do?” She asked.
“Just told him about the dungeon. He didn’t take it very well. He has a dramatic past with dungeons.” I told her.
“I see… But I’m sure he wouldn't hold you accountable for that. It is the guild master’s job to act on new dungeons.” The receptionist said.
“Well, I still feel sorry for him.” I said. “Giving an old man panic attacks isn’t exactly nice.”
“I’ll tell him you are sorry.” The receptionist promised.
“Brian, let’s get going, or we'll be late!” Lucia called me. But my food.
“But I didn’t get my food yet.” I answered.
“I got you three wyvern steak sandwiches. You can eat them on the way, or when we get there.” Lucia said, showing me a cloth wrapped package.
“Sure, let me just fill up my water skin.” I said. Actually, where can I even fill it up?
“Then get over here already.” Lucia said, making her way to some sort of machine. A water fountain?
I walk up next to her and pull my water skin out of my fanny pack. She grabs it from my hand and shows me how the water fountain works.
“You put the mouth of your water skin here, and pull this lever down. Then it will fill your container with water.” She informed me. “Be careful not to over-fill.”
The water fountain worked in a similar way to the water coolers looked back on earth, except it didn’t have a large water tank attached to it. It probably used magic to make water.
After filling up my water skin, Lucia handed it to me.
“Thanks.”
“Of course. Because of you, we are all fine. I even got two levels from the wyvern fight.” She told me.
I guess she would only get two, because she was at a higher rank to begin with.
“Now, let’s go.” She said and pulled me along.
You could have given me a few more seconds so I could have placed my water skin and the sandwitches into my fanny pack with a little more care.
—
On the way to the gates, Lucia turned to me.
“Here, I should give this back.” She said as she handed my Slot Machine back to me. I guess I did give it to her.
I received it from her and put it back into my collection. I also quickly check on my sleeve and toploader monsters. Red-Eyes, Overdrive and Slot machine are there, but Dark Magician Girl and Dark Magician are missing. Mana should be with Alice, but where did Dark Magician go? I think I still had him summoned when I passed out. My DiaDhank wasn’t active when I woke up, so it shouldn’t be on it. To make sure I pulled up my sleeve and checked my DiaDhank. It was empty. No cards anywhere.
I’m sure the Chorus and the Legendary sword I had activated had vanished after their two hours were up, but Dark Magician shouldn’t. Perhaps Alice took it.
“Is something wrong?” Lucia asked me as she noticed I had my DiaDhank open. “Is there another emergency?”
“Nothing like that.” I told her. “I’m just missing a card.”
“That magician one?” She confirmed.
“Yes. Do you know who has it?”
“It’s still outside, near where we fought the wyverns.” She told me.
“Why would it be there?” I asked.
“It’s too hot for anyone to touch.” Lucia told me.
Hot? As in burning hot? Why?
“But why would it be hot?” I wondered out loud. They’ve never been hot before.
“I don’t know. And it’s not even normal hot, like fire. Jack tried touching it as well, and it burned him, even though he has the fire resistance skill.” Lucia told me. So it’s not normal ‘hot’ but a phenomenon that makes it seem hot to the touch.
“I want to go take a look at it, at some point.” I said to Lucia.
“We can do that after I get the blood drained.” She answered.
“Sure, let’s do that.”
—
On our way to the gate, a few guards stopped to thank me for saving them. It feels strange to be thanked like this. Am I a celebrity now? Well, at least it seems like only the guards know of it, for now. Thank god Brandon is out of town or he might do something stupid again.
At the gate, a familiar guard waved at us as he noticed us approaching. He’s from the first time I got into town. I think he was Rico’s dad or something. I don’t recall him being there when we fought the wyverns, but perhaps he was a part of that secondary force that came out just before I passed out.
“Hey Brian.” He called out to me. “Thanks for what you did.”
Well, that was quick and simple. I guess Rico takes something from him.
“Yeah, sure…” I don’t really know how to respond to that.
“Heading outside already?” He asked.
“Well, I’m just going with Lucia. Hopefully no fighting today.” I answered.
“Yes, let’s hope for the best. I don’t know if your arrival to this town was lucky or unlucky. It was lucky for us, but I think you might consider it unlucky.” He said to me.
Well, I guess facing a wyvern attack would be unlucky. But we dealt with it. And I’m not sure if having system support breeds bad situations like that.
(Master, I don’t bring bad luck.) Laura told me.
(I know you don’t. I more so mean, it’s common in different novels from my world to have transported people run into one problem after another. I’m just thinking that Brandon might be right in the assessment, that me being here is a confirmation that the lesser behemoth will appear again.) I explained to Laura.
(Even if one does appear, I’m sure Master can deal with it.) Laura put her faith in me. I’m not a God you know.
Well, let’s hope for the best.
“If you do run into any trouble, be sure to inform the guard. The ones that got to take part in the battle have leveled up and some of the others are now jealous.” He said to me.
“I think it’s better not to have a giant hole in your stomach.” I responded, thinking back to the man who was stabbed by the wyvern tail. What happened to him anyway?
I think Lucia read my expression as she said to me, “He is fine. Your potion kept him alive, and we had an antivenom made for his paralysis.” She told me. That’s good to hear.
“Well, feel free to call us, if you need help.” The guard told me. “By the way, my name is Mario.”
“Nice to meet you Mario. My name is Brian.” I returned his introduction.
“You do realize I already knew that.” Mario said back.
“Yeah, I guess you did. I just felt like I had to say something.” I responded.
“Brian, let’s go. I’ll be late.” Lucia said, pulling me by the hand.
“Yes, let’s.”
We made our way out to the fields.