Chapter 62: "Formal" Warrior!

Chapter 62: Chapter 62: "Formal" Warrior!

Lorin followed him and stopped beside the dummy. He took a deep breath, cleared all the distracting thoughts from his mind, and then raised Rusted Throat horizontally.

"Hah!"

He let out a low shout, and the Longsword in his hand instantly turned into several afterimages, slashing at the dummy with extreme speed. The old Leather Armor finally completed its mission. In the face of the sharp Rusted Throat, several long gashes were torn into it, leaving it almost hanging off the dummy.

"PANT... PANT..."

Lorin gasped for breath. That was the absolute fastest speed he could swing without using Block and Counterattack. In fact, because his stamina had fully recovered, he was even slightly faster than when he had slashed the Rock-dwelling Salamander.

"Fast speed, Skilled technique." Glen crossed his arms, having carefully observed every detail of his sword swings, and casually commented, "It’s just that the Power delivery of your final strike was slightly off. It’s fine for slashing a dummy, but in actual combat, if the terrain under your feet isn’t ideal, you could easily slip. However, your overall performance has reached the Skilled standard. As an Official-tier Warrior, congratulations, you’ve passed."

He took a Copper Badge engraved with a Longsword pattern out of his pocket and said, "Just hand this to the front desk."

Lorin took the badge with some excitement, gently rubbing its cold surface. "I’ve finally become a ’Formal’ Professional. My efforts these past few days have finally paid off..." he thought to himself.

"Wait... his evaluation just now sounded very professional, didn’t it?" he wondered.

"Mr. Glen," he probed. "Would you be willing to impart some of your experience as a Warrior? I can pay Gold Coins as compensation."

"Why should I teach you?"

"I want to become stronger. Your evaluation was very objective, and I need someone to help correct my mistakes," Lorin said.

Glen looked him up and down, as if confirming his financial capacity, and then asked, "How much are you willing to pay in exchange for guidance?"

"What a profiteer..." Lorin cursed inwardly as he looked at him. "I believe I’m far from the only one who has asked you this question. As long as I go out and ask the others..."

He could accept a high price, but he absolutely couldn’t accept being the only one paying a "high price."

Glen remained silent for a few seconds before finally speaking: "If it’s just guidance on combat experience, it’s ten Silver Coins per session. If you want to learn Combat Skills, it’s five Gold Coins per session. Both last for one hour.

"This is a very fair price. What you get from me won’t be superficial things, but the secrets that can only be comprehended in life-and-death situations."

He pulled a silver badge from his pocket, showed it to Lorin, and continued, "I am an ’Elite’ Warrior. I don’t know where you learned Continuous Slash, but you don’t even know the proper way for Sheathing the Sword..."

Glen threw out a technique he had never heard of and continued to tempt him, "I can teach you all of this. What do you say?"

Five Gold Coins for an hour. This price almost perfectly wedged itself into Lorin’s acceptable range—it wasn’t unbearably expensive, but it genuinely made his heart ache.

Lorin considered it for a few seconds and felt there was no rush. Since Glen was always going to be here anyway, he could still go look for alternative options.

"This is not a small sum. I need to think about it."

"Alright."

Lorin put the badge away, turned around, and returned to the main hall. The short guy was currently chatting enthusiastically with Vanessa, making her giggle continuously.

"How did it go? How did it go?" Seeing him come out, the short guy immediately jumped down from the chair.

"I passed." He smiled and handed over the Copper Badge.

Vanessa happily took the badge, looked down to make a note in the registry, and then returned it to him, saying, "Congratulations on becoming an Official-level Warrior! At your age, reaching ’Elite’ is just around the corner! Oh, right..."

She rummaged through her drawer and pulled out a long piece of parchment. She placed it on the counter, turned it toward him, and pointed at the contents. "This shows the Guild’s benefits and treatments for Adventurers of different Tiers. You can take a look."

"Thank you."

"There are benefits too?" Lorin thought, his interest piqued. He tucked the badge into his waist pouch, picked up the parchment, and took a look.

...

*Adventurer’s Guild Benefits and Promotion Guide*

Note: Issued by the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters, universally applicable to all regional branch guilds.

Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild.

Whether you are a wet-behind-the-ears rookie or a veteran who has braved the wilderness for years, the Guild is dedicated to providing every registered member with rewards that match their abilities.

Please carefully read the following instructions regarding Tier promotion and corresponding benefits.

I. Unranked Adventurers

You are an indispensable part of the Guild and its future hope. The Guild will provide you with the most Basic security guarantees and mission planning, wishing you well as you take the first steps of your adventuring career.

Core Benefits:

Basic Mission Permissions: Can accept all ’Unranked’ missions.

Basic Trading Services: Can sell loot through the Guild, with a handling fee of twenty percent.

Bounty Publishing: Can issue bounty missions through the Guild, with the Guild taking a ten percent cut.

II. Official-tier Adventurers

You have proven your ability to independently handle danger. You are the backbone of the Guild, and the Guild will serve you wholeheartedly.

Core Benefits:

Formal Mission Permissions: Can accept all missions of the ’Formal’ Tier and below.

Standard Trading Rates: Can sell loot through the Guild, with the handling fee reduced to ten percent.

Training Facility Access: Can use the Guild’s affiliated Basic training grounds for free, but must provide personal training equipment.

Basic Intelligence Access: Can review public monster bestiaries and mission log records, as well as detailed maps of the surrounding areas of the Guild’s location.

...

"The benefits look pretty good..." Lorin thought.

Further down were the benefits for the ’Elite’ and ’Veteran’ levels. The benefits provided were even richer, including some special treatments. Putting it all on one sheet of paper was likely meant to motivate the Adventurers, but since he had only just reached ’Formal,’ there was no need to bite off more than he could chew by considering those now.

The benefits for the Official-tier alone were already very useful. The intelligence access service, in particular, was crucial for an Adventurer. Free use of the training grounds was also nice, though the trading tax was a bit high. It felt like it was only suited for selling things that were hard to get rid of.

"I understand. Thanks," Lorin said, returning the parchment to her. He glanced up at the bulletin board on the wall and continued to ask, "We want to accept a mission. Do you have any recommendations?"

"Alright, please wait a moment... How many team members do you have? What are their professions and levels?"

"Just the two of us."

"Okay, one ’Formal’ Warrior, one Barbarian..."

"Plus a ’Formal’ Mage."

Erin had followed them over at some unknown point. She had changed back into that burgundy Magic Robe and was standing expressionlessly behind the two of them.

Seeing her gorgeous Magic Robe and Magic Staff, Vanessa was momentarily stunned. Then, she looked at Lorin and carefully confirmed, "Excuse me, sir, is this lady your companion?"

Lorin hadn’t expected her to come either. He glanced at Erin in surprise. Seeing that she didn’t offer any further explanation, he had no choice but to swallow the question that had reached his lips.

"Yes," he said.

Erin slightly raised her chin, looking at the bulletin board behind the counter, and said indifferently, "Anya doesn’t need help for now. Since I have free time anyway, I came over to help her keep an eye on you, lest you ruin things."

Lorin nodded agreeably and said, "Sorry to trouble you."

The corners of Erin’s mouth curled up slightly. She took out a Copper Badge similar in style to Lorin’s, only the pattern on hers was a Magic Staff.

"To make it easier for all Adventurers to select missions that suit their strength, the Guild has categorized the missions in advance." Vanessa took the badge and explained as she pointed at the bulletin board, "The missions for each Tier are divided into upper, intermediate, and lower levels. They respectively represent missions suitable for five or more, three to four, and two to three Professionals of the same Tier to take on.

"Since you have two ’Formal’ Professionals here, and given that you’ve just formed a team, I suggest you start with a lower-level mission to test the waters. Although the reward won’t be high, its advantage lies in being safe and reliable."

"Alright, we’ll take a look ourselves." Lorin stepped closer to the bulletin board, tilting his head up as he gave it a rough glance from top to bottom.

The section completely covered in postings was for ’Unranked’ missions. They were basically tasks like finding things, clearing out rat infestations, or escorting merchant caravans. The rewards were mostly denominated in Silver Coins; Gold Coins were relatively rare.

His gaze shifted to the side. The ’Formal’ level missions were noticeably fewer. Many were upper-level missions that had accumulated for a long time. Even in a major city like Frost Valley, gathering a complete team of five Professionals with the necessary Rating posed some difficulty.

Lorin looked at the missions marked as lower-level.

*Eradicate the Goblin Camp.* It involved more than ten goblins and a Bear Goblin for 40 Gold Coins. Bear Goblins seemed to be better fighters than Hobgoblins, didn’t they? He decided to keep this as a backup option.

*Suspected Haunting at the Old Cemetery Outside the City.* It required clearing the cemetery and its surrounding areas to confirm there were no residual threats, offering 75 Gold Coins. With such a high reward, the difficulty would probably rival fighting the Rock-dwelling Salamander. He wondered who gave this Rating.

*Find the Missing Patrol Squad.* A four-person patrol squad had gone missing inside the city, offering 50 Gold Coins. It didn’t even mention the time or location of their disappearance, so he had no idea where they were supposed to start looking.

*Clear the Upper City District Sewers.* They had been frequently emitting a foul stench recently, and the Guild suspected that Demons were roaming around. 55 Gold Coins.

Lorin glanced at the Red-haired Mage and decided to forget about that one...

"Pip thinks eradicating the Goblin Camp is a good choice. We’re very familiar with them anyway, though I just don’t know if the Bear Goblin will be hard to deal with," the short guy said.