Leon had been at the adventurers guild since dawn, not wanting to spend any longer at ‘home’ then necessary. The results of the initiation had been posted an hour or so after he had arrived. Unsurprisingly, he was the top initiate. Below him was Syra, who must have been the Katiine, and her name was followed by two he did not recognize: Liliana and Rayne. He did not bother to read the names below them.

  Overall, out of the twenty-five who had taken part, fifteen had succeeded. One had been wounded to the point of amputation and one had even died. He shook his head at the memory. It was a risk he understood well, but he doubted many of those who attended were as aware of their mortality. It would not surprise him if some of those who had passed just did not show up to the Adventurers Guild, and instead simply went on with their lives. From what he had seen yesterday, those ones would be the smarter ones.

  Turning his head away from the list and such morbid thoughts, he made his way to one of the receptionists for the guild. It was time for his reward and he could admit to feeling a bit of excitement at the prospect. He had not pushed himself at initiation, there had been no need to, but it should have been clear that he was a cut above the rest of the initiates even when only half-trying. He was sure he could qualify at least as a mid-tier bronze adventurer, but would not be surprised to be granted high-tier bronze rank. Silver could be worked on in time as he raised his stats, once he worked his strength up to C tier and got everything else to D tier.

  Wearing a confident smirk on his face, he reached the desk the receptionist was sitting at. “I am here for my reward. I was the top initiate, Leon.”

  The man looked up at him before checking something behind himself that Leon could not quite see. Nodding, he turned his attention back to Leon before pulling out an emerald orb he recognized from a few days prior.

  Why are they pulling that out? he wondered.

  Seeing his confused expression the clerk explained, “Just have to confirm your information before I can give you your identity badge or your reward.”

  Leon nodded. The formality was annoying, and the orb was not a pleasant experience, but it was not as if losing a minute of his time would keep him at the bronze rank a minute longer. Hopefully, this would be the last time. Perhaps he would unlock his mana before the next evaluation so that the orb would be made redundant.

  Hesitantly, he placed his hand on the orb and prepared for the uncomfortable sensation he knew was coming.

  [Leon]

  Strength - D (63/100)

  Agility - E (22/50)

  Dexterity - E (25/50)

  Constitution - E (34/50)

  Magic Power - F (Unawakened)

  Taking his hand off the orb once the receptionist nodded for him to do so, he severed the connection to the orb. He was proud of his stats, they had been cultivated through no lack of sweat or hard work. Given the loss of the privileges that many nobles were granted there was little doubt he was behind where he could have been had his family not fallen, but even then, he was willing to hazard a bet that he could present a challenge to any noble his age.

  Looking at his stats now, he seemed to have grown after fighting the kobolds. Just a single point in dexterity, agility, and constitution each, but undoubtedly more than anyone else would have grown. He felt himself growing a tiny bit more satisfied at the revelation, and considered how best to grow from here.

  Movement in front of him caused Leon to turn away from thoughts of further training regimens, as he saw the man inscribe something onto a small copper plate which he then held out to Leon.

  Anxiously, he brought it to his eyes. Surely this was not what he thought it was, but his worries were confirmed as he read the inscription upon the plate.

  [Leon]

  [Unranked Adventurer]

  [Ten missions until rank assignment]

  The words were a crushing blow to his ambitions.

  An unranked, seriously? I understand the kobolds were easy, but surely they are not any tougher than what even low-tier bronze adventurers could easily deal with.

  Rather than dwell on his lack of rank, he turned back to the receptionist while attempting to maintain his smile from earlier, if a little strained. It was not an easy venture. “What about my reward for being top initiate?”

  He forced himself to speak with a forced calmness he did not feel. The receptionist either did not notice or did not care and responded candidly.

  “That is the reward. Every other initiate will need to complete twenty-five missions before they can advance to bronze.”

  At this, Leon’s facade dropped, quickly replaced with an indignant expression as he threw his hands in the air. “WHAT?!”

  The light sounds of conversation around the hall dulled at his outburst as a number of curious eyes turned to regard him. Bringing his arms back down, he attempted to soothe his expression and ignore the embarrassment his display had caused.

  Lowering his voice to an angry hiss, he continued, “I was leagues above every other initiate there. I should be low bronze at the very minimum.”

  The receptionist remained unfazed at the demand. “Them’s the rules. Honestly, ten is pretty small. Top initiate is typically brought down to between twenty and fifteen. Clearly, you impressed someone.”

  Leon was not sated with the praise, a fact the receptionist clearly had not missed judging by his reluctant sigh.

  “The only people we can qualify immediately are those with an average of D rank for their stats. Just having strength won’t be enough for that.”

  Leon felt his anger boiling but managed to calm down through some deep breaths. It was not proper for a noble to give such displays. With an exasperated sigh, he nodded his thanks to the receptionist and pocketed the copper identification badge.

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  Turning, he walked to the mission boards to see what he could accept. No use dwelling on the failings of others, that had been what his nanny had always said.

  The boards were helpfully split into various sections based on tier. The bronze- and silver-tier board seemed particularly large while all the others were noticeably smaller. The unranked board was not the smallest, that honor being reserved for the boards of the top tiers which were all but empty. That being said, the unranked board was still pitiful and the assignments did not improve his mood.

  Gather herbs by the Avon river in the west. Catch small game out in the northeastern woods. Act as a bouncer for a local tavern! Are we adventurers or thugs? These are not jobs fit for an adventurer, nevermind a noble. This is just random crap.

  “They’re paying how much for herb gathering?” an incredulous voice asked from beside him.

  Looking to his right, Leon noticed one of the others from his initiation also staring at the unranked mission board. Beside that boy stood the Katiine who had taken second place.

  “Herb gathering?” Craning her neck past him to look at the commission, she let out a low whistle of appreciation. “Damn, not bad for grunt work. Grab it and let’s get out of here.”

  Without further ado, the brown-haired boy snatched the commission from the board, his expression ecstatic, and the two headed out.

  Does collecting herbs really warrant such a fuss?

  None of the other jobs seemed any more impressive to Leon. The further he perused, the less enticing any of them seemed to be. He let out a sigh as someone snatched another of the jobs off the board.

  Perhaps I am overthinking it. This is not about honor, it is simply about making it to bronze.

  With that in mind, he looked over the board with renewed zeal, eyes open for the most inoffensive job he could spot. It did not take long for his spirits to die once again as he deemed jobs beneath him or requiring skills he simply did not possess. He had not expected adventuring jobs to require the skills needed to skin wild rabbits or aid in plowing a field.

  Adventuring was about slaying monsters and safeguarding the kingdom, these jobs were nothing more than glorified peasant work.

  Slowly and surreptitiously, he inched his way to the bronze-tier jobs and instantly regretted the decision upon reading the first mission. Bronze-tier jobs entailed actual combat, it seemed. There were some jobs similar to the unranked ones, but even those took place in areas where monsters or bandits had a real risk of appearing. Each and every one of them was better suited to him than those on the board to his left, and yet he was barred from taking them.

  Forget this. I can check again tomorrow. My time today would be better spent training. It is not as if I do not have some savings leftover.

  The idea warmed up to him the more he thought about it, and the longer he spent looking over the pathetic jobs on offer. One good job would be all he would need to tide him over until the next. If he were to be busy on a herb collection ‘mission’ and missed a proper one, then that would be unforgivable. Better to train for a good mission then sully himself on the mundane.

  With those final thoughts, he made his way out of the Adventurer’s Guild.

  ~

  Leon found the bridge he claimed for his training grounds easily. He had had a week or so to familiarize himself with the location before joining the guild and had memorized the route between the Guild and his home beforehand. He had hoped that the Guild would have their own training grounds he could use, which they did; however, it cost coin to use for an hour, and he had precious little to spare. There was a free field as well, but it was entirely too crowded for his liking. No, the bridge was the better option if just for the fact he had all the space to himself.

  It was an old stone bridge near the western wall, big enough to support two carriages running side by side but rarely was it used for such. The bridge was near the western markets of the city and ran over the Torid canal. He had found it by happenstance one night after the guard had told him he could not swing his sword in an alley, presumably assuming him to be some thug or gangster. The memory angered him as much now as it did then, so he had taken a walk to look for a more secluded area to train.

  Thus, he had stumbled on the bridge. The collapse of the west wall some weeks back meant that there was less foot traffic around the bridge than there otherwise might be, merchants no longer coming through meaning the market was less teeming. Typically, only guards, adventurers, and construction workers could be seen walking about, retiring from the end of their day’s work on the reconstruction. If he arrived at the area as the sun was setting, he found it was typically entirely empty for hours, aside from the occasional ruffian, but even then he was never accosted. As he swung his greatsword, he smiled at how well the guards seemed to hold order in the city.

  The underside of the bridge sported a dirt shore on the banks of the canal wide enough for him to practice on without having to worry about tripping into the water. He had spent some coin and time to bring over various amenities to the bridge, chief among them being a makeshift training dummy made of a wooden pole and straw alongside two torches. It was still a muddy and damp place, moss and lichen covering the arch above him while mushrooms grew at the base of the bridge. But it was also a place where he could be alone and train in peace; frankly, he often preferred the bridge to his apartment if just to escape his neighbors.

  Reaching down under his breastplate, he groped around the small space below his chest plate where he hid a few valuables. It was there that he kept his coin and some worn pages. The pages were his parents’, an advanced training manual the couple had written for Leon. It contained information on how to better train strength and constitution along with some skills for once he could unlock his mana.

  Studying the pages, he found himself pondering whether he really should be training his core stats. Strength and constitution were his main areas of focus normally; they were what he needed for the niche he was trying to occupy after all.

  But he also knew that those with D-tier average stats could automatically earn silver status. He doubted he would be able to achieve a D average in his stats before completing ten missions, but the desire was definitely there, especially if a C-tier average was the requirement for promotion into gold-tier.

  Increasing his dexterity seemed largely useless. He held little need to use precise weapons, and he could always recruit ranged fighters if he expected to face opponents who might take flight. Agility, on the other hand, was not necessarily as worthless. Being able to move faster and more fluidly could serve him well even if it was not as broadly applicable to his fighting style.

  Images of the way the Katiine had fought flashed through his head. There had been a grace and efficiency to her fighting that was almost captivating; indeed, she had fought in a very eye-catching manner. The temptation to fight as her was powerful, but he suppressed the urge, his own style was perfectly elegant in its own way.

  Not that flair mattered when it came to fighting of course.

  Dispelling the unusual train of thought, he returned his attention back to the matter of his training and future. To achieve a D average in his stats, he would need at least three at D rank. Given that his strength was already there, it naturally followed that he should raise his constitution and agility. Even if he could never fight as the Katiine had done, it was important to be able to move fast enough to respond to such opponents, so as not to remain helpless in the face of such foes.

  It was decided then—he would for now focus on raising his other two stats to D tier. Strength would naturally rise in the field anyway, albeit at a significantly reduced speed. Even if he could not reach bronze through this method, he was content that it would not be a wasted effort. He would need to find some books on how to actually train agility, though. His father’s manual was good, but it was focused as well. There was a library not far from his home he could check another day, and the Guildhall may have some tomes on different training styles.

  For now, he could make his best guess, however. Agility was all about speed and the movement of the body. He supposed he may be able to train it with sprinting, perhaps with the occasional high jump. He would undoubtedly look like a loon in the middle of the city running around in metal armor at full speed, but he could not very well leave his gear unattended, and he certainly did not trust the lack of security at his home.

  With an exasperated sigh, he stowed the papers back into his breastplate and got to stretching. His legs would not forgive him after this, he was sure, neither would his lungs.

  Perhaps he would be unable to take a job tomorrow either, and perhaps that was not such a tragic consequence. What with the jobs they saw fit to offer him…