The Life, Death, and Relife of the Mushroom Mage

Chapter 9

Mally tied up Rat outside the guild hall, next to a line of similarly tethered horses. They looked up at the sign hanging above it, and then they took a deep breath in. This was it. The first step into a new life. They had successfully defended themself against bandits, they had successfully defended themself in the DeVille house, and now they had everything in order. It was time for their relife to begin.

They pushed open the thick double doors and stepped into the hall.

There were people everywhere, hanging out around the bulletin board, chatting up the barmaid, sitting at tables, and no one was looking at them. Taking a deep breath in, they closed the door behind them and made their way to the front, where an attendant was waiting behind a counter. No one paid them any mind, and they approached the young woman with red hair plaited down her back in a thick braid.

"Hello," they said pleasantly and slid across their identification card. "My name is Mally Mack, and I'd like to register for the guild."

"Oh, are you looking to become an adventurer?" the attendant asked in a sweet voice, and they nodded.

"That's right," they replied, and she hummed.

"Are you a swordsman?" she asked, and he smiled.

"Magic swordsman, actually," he replied, and she blinked.

"Oh, that's great!" she said and pulled out a clipboard with a form attached to it. "Can you read and write?"

"I can, yes," he replied, and she nodded.

"Good. That's a must for adventurers," she said warmly. "Well, if you could go ahead and fill this out, we can get you started. We base ranks on merit here, no matter how good you are of a swordsman or mage, so you can only level up by completing quests. Is that alright with you?"

"Yes, that's fine!" he replied, and took the clipboard and pen. His eyes scanned over the document, and he began to fill it out. Magic aptitude: fungal. Martial arts? Yes. Age? 15. Date of birth? 02/25/5123. Name? Mally Mack. Next of kin? None. Gender? Prefer not to. They filled out the rest of the inane questions, and then they pushed the clipboard back across the counter.

"Wonderful! It's two gold to register, and if you lose your guild card, it's one silver to replace!" the woman said, and he opened his coin purse and pulled out two gold. That was a hefty fee. It equaled about $200 in regular American USD, but his markings, but he didn't say as much. Ten coppers were a silver, ten silvers were a gold, and ten golds were a platinum. Nothing much else changed. He really couldn't wait for the world to move on to paper currency. The coins were hard to deal with. And heavy.

"Okay, I'll get you registered right away!" she said cheerfully, and disappeared through a door at the back. He leaned on the counter, waiting patiently as he looked around, and took in the denizens of this place.

Most of them looked hard, scarred, but there were a fair few of them that still looked fresh and youthful. He probably wasn't going to make any friends. He was probably the 'youngest' person here. That was alright. He could manage on his own for now. He had never been all that good at making friends, anyway.

The attendant came back out with a card made of metal, and she showed it to him.

"It's magically enchanted so it updates with your age and rank!" she said. "You're E rank right now, but you can change that with a few quests! So, let me explain the point system to you."

He took the card and looked down at it, and she gave him a beaming smile.

"You have to complete ten quests of each variety to move up to the next rank, and once you complete them, you can take any quest at your level and below, but it still takes ten quests of your specific rank to move up to the next rank. So, you can't do twenty E-rank quests and move up to C. You have to do ten D-rank quests. Most people stick around their rank for a while before trying to move up to the next rank. You don't want to do it all at once!"