Chapter 6: Rules

With Morales pushing hard, the brown door of the Adventurers’ Guild opened to both sides with a bang, as if hit by some large beast.

Ed had thought he would see a crowded group inside, wearing homemade or bought armor, sitting on both sides of tables loudly discussing how many silver coins they earned today, or how many cups of wine they drank last night before passing out.

But unexpectedly, the vast room had only a few people, and even the sounds of conversation were quite sparse.

“Whoa~ look who’s here?”

A slightly surprised voice came from the corner inside the guild.

“Our famous [Mad Axe] Morales and… a newbie I haven’t seen?”

Ed followed the voice and saw in the dim corner, a skinny monkey-like man looking at him with a frivolous smile.

“Dona, if you don’t want to die, don’t talk to me in that tone.” 

Morales said with a gloomy face. 

“Also, this newbie is brought in by me… and Hissman. You’d better retract your dirty claws.”

“Tsk tsk, how rare.” 

The tall, skinny man called Dona slowly stood up and walked toward them. 

“Hissman is one thing, but hearing the word ‘bring newbie’ from a northern demon bear like you again, I think the iron gates of the upper district are about time to open to us adventurers.”

“Are you provoking me, Dona?” 

A dangerous light flashed in the burly man’s eyes.

“No, no, how dare I?” 

Dona stopped a few steps in front of Morales, smiling as he looked at Ed. 

“Just, some things you’d better tell this little bro early, to avoid… getting stabbed in the back later.”

“Dona!”

Ed clearly felt the burly man in front of him was about to lose control of his anger, almost roaring out.

“Don’t forget last time—”

“Mr. Morales and Mr. Dona.” 

A clear, cold voice suddenly came from deeper inside. 

“If you want to fight, please go outside. Private fights are prohibited inside the guild.”

These words were like pouring a basin of cold water on the two adventurers present. 

The smiling Dona’s face changed, he “tch”ed and walked back. 

Even the angry Morales just snorted coldly, no longer paying attention to the tall, skinny man’s provocative gaze.

He waved at Ed. 

“Kid, stop watching the show, follow me.”

Ed sighed a bit disappointedly in his heart.

Honestly, he kind of wanted to see these two fight, so he could assess the strength of his potential competitors.

But now it seemed there was no chance for the time being.

Under Morales’ urging gaze, Ed followed him slowly deeper into the Adventurers’ Guild.

Looking around, if asked what was most eye-catching in this vast space, Ed thought without doubt it was the vibrant pink hair behind a certain counter.

No way around it—after seeing too many gray and black hairs today, suddenly seeing a color as striking as his own golden hair, or even more vibrant, it was hard not to pay special attention.

At this time, the owner of the pink hair nodded at him.

It seemed this was the Miss Melina that Hissman mentioned earlier.

Ed thought to himself, nodding back slightly.

“Kid, watch closely—” 

Morales ahead stepped aside to let Ed see more clearly.

He pointed to the counter where the pink-haired miss was. 

“Over there, counter one, handles registration for newbies like you, and team formation, naming, and changes.”

He changed direction.

“And over there, counter two, handles task acceptance and settlement. If you fancy a task and no one has reserved it ahead, you can take it there and exchange it for fragrant gold coins.”

Ed listened seriously, his eyes darting between the four counters in front, nodding from time to time.

Had to say, although Morales seemed quick to anger, his introduction to the guild was thorough, even describing the personalities of the counter staff clearly.

After hearing his introduction, Ed summarized a bit.

The Hilos Adventurers’ Guild had four main counters, handling registration, tasks, promotions, and information respectively. 

Among them, counter two for tasks, due to heavy workload, was deliberately divided into four small counters: two for accepting tasks, two for giving rewards.

Additionally, adventurers were divided into ten levels. 

Once the number and difficulty of completed tasks reached a certain point, one could apply for level advancement at counter three.

As for counter four for information, adventurers generally posted information there, and those in need could inquire and purchase via associated keywords. 

Of course, under this transaction method, there were always some unlucky ones who bought fake information, and the guild would punish the poster accordingly.

“Kid, remember clearly—making a low-level mistake like going to the wrong counter will make people laugh their teeth off.”

Morales said, seeming to recall some unpleasant memories, his face turning ugly.

“Also, if nothing’s wrong, absolutely don’t provoke Miss Melina at counter one, the one who just shooed away Dona.”

When saying this, this burly man’s voice surprisingly lowered.

“Why do you say that, senior? Is she very powerful?” 

Ed asked curiously.

Unexpectedly, the man shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

Ed frowned slightly.

“But every person who angered her was expelled from the Adventurers’ Guild.” 

Morales whispered. 

“Some say she’s the daughter of the current Adventurers’ Guild president. I think that’s quite convincing—after all, look, even her hair color doesn’t look like people from this country.”

Indeed. On that point, Ed had to nod in agreement.

Morales had said a long paragraph, and seeing Ed had no questions, he finally relaxed.

“All right, kid from out of town, my introduction ends here.”

He nodded toward the pink-haired miss’s position. 

“Next is your own business. Don’t forget to mention my name when registering. As for Hissman, don’t worry—I’ll transfer his share to that greedy ghost on time.”

“His share?” 

Ed asked doubtfully.

Morales stared at Ed and grinned.

“After you finish registering and mention my name, Miss Melina will naturally explain it to you.”

With that, regardless of Ed’s reaction, he walked straight toward counter two with the heavy bag on his back.

Ed looked suspiciously at his back but finally just shook his head and walked toward counter one.

“Miss Melina?”

“That’s me.” 

The pink-haired miss nodded, her attitude surprisingly mild.

This doesn’t match what Morales said. 

Ed inwardly complained.

“I want to register as an adventurer.”

Melina quickly entered work mode, pulling out a booklet and a pen from the side.

“May I have your name?”

“Nord.” 

Ed hesitated for a moment but still didn’t give his real name.

“Just ‘Nord’?” 

Melina behind the counter scribbled, asking without lifting her head.

“Yes, I have no surname.”

Having no surname wasn’t strange; in fact, in this world ruled by nobles and royalty, most people from birth to death had only one name.

“Good… Then, do you have a desired title?” 

Melina continued.

“Can I not have one?”

Ed felt he was just here for information and wouldn’t be an adventurer for long, so a title wasn’t necessary.

“Yes.” 

Melina nodded. 

“Mr. Nord, please lift your head a bit. ‘Recorder No. 2’ will record your physical information. If you have concerns about this, we can use another method.”

“No.” Nord shook his head.

Although he was interested in the “Recorder No. 2” the pink-haired miss mentioned, he could ask later.

“Good… Done. I see your recommender is that [Mad Axe] Mr. Morales. Do you have any questions?”

“Recommender?”

The pink-haired miss’s pen tip suddenly paused.

“All right. I figured they wouldn’t introduce these ‘common senses’ to you.”

Ed actually saw an angry expression on this seemingly good-tempered miss’s face.

“Let me tell you.” Melina sighed. “According to guild rules, every new adventurer with a recommender must give one-tenth of their task income to the recommender for the first six months after registration, as compensation for the recommendation.”

“You mean,” Ed thought and said, “if I choose Morales as recommender, then for the next six months I’ll be working for him?”

Melina was silent for a moment. “You can understand it that way.”

“Isn’t this rule a bit unreasonable?” Ed frowned. “They just gave a simple introduction, why—”

Ed stopped his mouth because he saw the pink-haired miss in front of him make a “shh” gesture.

“In other words, you can understand this as protection money. With a recommender, at least no one will easily touch you in these six months.” 

Melina said seriously. 

“But if you anger your recommender, the consequences are hard to say.”

Ed looked next door. 

That burly man had already handed over the bag and was grinning at him.

“Fine.”

Although he said that, he wouldn’t stay here long anyway, and he wasn’t short on money. 

Even ignoring the so-called recommender probably wouldn’t be a problem.

Melina seemed still worried he might do something rash and continued patiently explaining. 

“This system wasn’t originally like this. Back when there were many demons on human lands, weak adventurers could hardly complete those dangerous tasks alone and often chose to join under a strong adventurer. As long as they paid a bit on time, there wouldn’t be life dangers.”

“I don’t know what happened later for it to slowly evolve into this. Although I want to…”

She suddenly went silent, then sighed softly.

“No, nothing. Your information is logged. Any other questions?”

“Yes.” 

Ed looked at Morales walking out the Adventurers’ Guild door with the empty bag. 

“Can you tell me the relationship between those two earlier? They both seemed quite hot-tempered.”

“Them…” 

Melina hesitated and spoke softly. 

“Mr. Morales was once Mr. Dona’s recommender.”

All right, now he roughly guessed what Dona meant by “Morales getting stabbed in the back.”

“Good, I have no questions.”

“Mm, the badge production fee is five silver coins total. You can give them directly to me. In two hours, remember to come personally to pick up your adventurer badge. It’s universal worldwide; you can use it anywhere to activate your identity and permissions.”

“Additionally, due to unknown reasons, beast extermination tasks outside the city have been frequent lately. Adventurers often have frictions over the ownership of some beast’s head. If…” 

Melina took the silver coins Ed handed over, hesitated as she glanced at the corner of the black scabbard unintentionally revealed at his waist. 

“If your strength isn’t strong, please try to take fewer such tasks.”

Ed remembered the heavy bag behind Morales and nodded. 

“Thanks.”