Chapter 8: CH. 8 | Don’t Trust Anyone

He waited at a small stand inside the guild, not ordering anything, just sitting there watching everyone.

Adventurers kept coming up to the administration desk, handing over their mission papers, though he had no idea where they’d gotten them from.

But as Theo scanned the area, he noticed the adventurers were pulling those mission papers off a bulletin board. There were two bulletin boards, each serving a different purpose.

The first one was for posting missions, with every party crowding around it, while the second was for recruitment, drawing a lot less interest.

After waiting for about two hours, the line in front of the administration desk finally thinned out.

Theo took the chance to step up and meet with a guild staff member, a woman with black hair braided to one side.

"Welcome. Is there something you need?" the woman asked, her name tag reading Sara.

"I need to register as a party porter," Theo answered.

"I’m sorry, what did you say?"

"Party Porter," Theo repeated, raising his voice slightly.

"I’m sorry, but registration for party porters has been closed since last month," Sara said, "It’s because there just wasn’t enough interest in becoming a porter."

Theo froze in shock. He hadn’t known any of this beforehand, especially since Yasa had spoken with such confidence yesterday that Theo could register as a Party Porter.

Now, hearing it straight from the guild staff, it was clear the job simply didn’t exist anymore. Theo had no idea what he was supposed to do next.

Without a job through the guild, finishing his Authority Quest was going to be a real challenge.

Would he have to go hunt monsters and adventure alone, without any help from the guild?

"Is something wrong?" Sara asked.

"Ah, about that... I originally wanted to sign up as a porter. But now that I know that job’s closed, I’m at a bit of a loss."

"You could register as an adventurer instead, mind telling me your class?" Sara asked.

Theo went quiet for a moment, looking at Sara and weighing whether it was a good idea to tell her his class.

But screw it, he was already stuck being classless, what was the point in hiding it?

"I’m classless."

He watched Sara’s expression shift, from an eager smile to complete silence.

She seemed to sink back into her seat, and Theo took her reaction as a sign that he wouldn’t be able to register, not as a porter, not as an adventurer either.

Theo turned and started walking away.

"Hey, where are you going?" Sara asked, catching Theo off guard.

The young man turned back and looked at Sara. His eyes lit up when he saw her holding out a sheet of paper and a pen for him. "Fill this form out, you want to be an adventurer, right?"

"B-But what about—"

"Your class is support. I understand."

Theo paused for a moment, then broke into a wide smile and walked back up to the front desk.

He filled in his information, and Sara had him list his class as support. Theo went along with it, he’d do whatever it took to become an adventurer, get stronger, and start earning money.

"The total registration fee for becoming an adventurer is fifteen copper."

He handed it over, and not long after, Sara gave Theo his adventurer card. She gave him a quick rundown of how it worked.

"The adventurer card is used to claim rewards. For raising your attributes, you can do that directly through your personal system panel."

"There are different mission tiers, from easiest to hardest. Rank F missions are the simplest, usually finished in a day. Rank S missions are the hardest, with special requirements just to take one on."

"Every time you complete a mission, you earn contribution points. The higher your contribution points, the higher your adventurer status becomes."

"For now, your adventurer status is still rookie. There are five status tiers, starting with rookie, then silver, gold, platinum, and finally conqueror."

Theo listened to every word carefully, not missing a single detail. He then glanced to the side, pointing at the other bulletin board.

"Is that where I pick up missions?" Theo asked.

Sara turned and nodded with a smile, "That’s right. The mission board gets refreshed every day at seven in the morning."

"Make sure you show up on time so you don’t miss out on the good ones," Sara added, "Anything else?"

"So, once I’m an adventurer, can I join a party?" Theo asked.

"You can, but I wouldn’t recommend it," Sara replied.

"Why not?"

"Because of your class. I’m worried that if a party finds out, they might report it, and we’d be forced to revoke your membership," Sara said.

"Unfortunately, you’re better off working solo," Sara added.

There’s no arguing with her on this. What she’s saying makes sense, I finally got the chance to become an adventurer, I need to guard this secret carefully.

"Do you understand what I’m telling you, Adventurer Theo?"

Theo nodded with a short smile, "I understand. Thank you so much for your help."

"Happy to help, good luck out there."

He turned and walked over to the mission bulletin board to check if there were any missions still available. Once there, he did find a handful of listings posted up.

Even so, the only missions left on the board were rank B and rank A, nothing at the lower tiers that matched his current ability.

Now he had no idea what to do next.

"No missions left for you, kid?" a man asked.

Theo looked left and right, then spotted a grown man who looked to be over twenty five talking to him, "Are you talking to me?"

"Of course," the man answered, "You’re the only one wearing that cheap starter gear, easy enough to guess you’re a new adventurer."

"Sit down, wait for some rookie party to fail their mission," he added.

Theo found himself interested in talking to the man. He sat down at the same table, not ordering any food or drink since he was out of money.

Even so, Theo was curious about what the man had said, about rookie parties failing their missions. The man took a swig of beer from his wooden mug and spoke casually.

"Lately, a lot of rookie parties have been signing up and grabbing missions. Every single day, there’s always some failed mission that gets returned," the man said.

"When that happens, those pretty ladies over there put the mission back up on the board, and anyone else can grab it," he explained.

"But since you came in this morning, you’ll probably have to wait until noon. That’s usually when they come back."

"Wait, what’s your name?" Theo asked. The man in front of him laughed at the question.

He downed the rest of his beer, then stood up and gave Theo’s shoulder a light pat, "No need to know my name. Good luck, kid."

"Come on, lads. Let’s go kick that damn goblin’s ass," he said, calling out to his party members.

Theo watched him walk off with a few other people. He had no idea whether what the man said was true or not.

Still, if it turned out to be true, Theo could actually make use of it. All he had to do was wait for some rookie party to return a failed mission.

He kept waiting inside the guild, watching as people gradually headed out to run their missions.

By the time noon rolled around, Theo was the only one left inside the guild.

His ears faintly caught the sound of gossip drifting over from another direction, clearly talking about him.

Theo didn’t care, he kept waiting even as his stomach growled and his throat went dry.

"No missions for you today, am I right?"

Theo turned around, and the woman from the front desk had come over, Sara. She arrived carrying a glass of water for Theo, and the young man nodded gratefully.

"I’m waiting for a party that returns a mission," Theo said.

Sara sat down at the same table as Theo, taking a sip from her own glass of water, "Want to hear a piece of advice from me?"

"What is it?" Theo asked.

"Don’t trust anything people around here tell you, except from us. Almost everything you hear is going to be wrong."

"There are parties that do return failed missions, but our rules are clear, that mission gets held and reposted the next day."

"S-So I can’t grab it this afternoon? Or even this evening?" Theo asked, both shocked and frustrated.

Sara went quiet for a moment, then gave a faint smile and shook her head.

Theo let out a slow breath, his hand clenching into a fist out of frustration at having been played by that man earlier.

For some reason, he really wanted to punch him. If he ever ran into that guy tomorrow, he was going to land a solid hit on him.

"You should probably head home, there’s nothing left for you to do here," Sara said.

Theo let out a breath and gave a short nod, Sara had a point. Maybe going forward he’d trust Sara and the rest of the guild staff a lot more than he trusted random adventurers.

He stood up and said his goodbyes to Sara. As he walked away from the table, he was caught off guard by the guild door swinging open.

Theo’s eyes went wide, "Yasa? Michelle?"

"Theo? How did it go?" Yasa asked, eager.

"I didn’t end up a porter, I’m an adventurer now," Theo said, "They helped me out."

"Really? That’s great! You can make a lot of money as an adventurer."

"So have you already gotten a mission?" Michelle asked. Theo shook his head.

He turned to look behind him and was startled to see the guild staff standing up in front of the reception desk, bowing in respect toward Yasa.

"Welcome, Archmage Yasa!" they greeted her, Sara included.

Theo jolted in shock, then turned toward Yasa standing next to Michelle, "You... you’re an Archmage?"