The foreigner yawned as she strolled through the streets of Coastfield; finally, at long last, she was making her way home. Although that entire ordeal had felt as though it had taken several centuries, the evident reality was that…not so much time had passed. Indeed, the sun was still quite high in the sky, even if it was beyond noon. There was much time left for this day.

  Nevertheless, she felt so oddly…fatigued and exhausted, even if her muscles and nerves remained energized and active; it was her mind that felt it could no longer operate… Truly, such a taxing experience that had been, despite having not been truly—objectively—energy-demanding. And that receptionist’s so-called ‘new member briefing’ or whatever…ended up being quite the information dense splurge… So much to know, and so many things to keep noted in mind…

  However, for all intentions and purposes, she was now a newly registered member of that ‘Adventurer Guild’, an adventurer of the Copper-rank—the lowest of the low. Likewise, she felt that she…largely and perhaps only to a point…understood broadly all of the intricacies and other such things she needed to know.

  Yet by the end of it all, she quite frankly…did not know what to feel about all of this. Even if she were not in a perpetual state of detached dissociation from her own inner-emotions and affect experiences, she still would not know…what to feel or think.

  She would have to wait up to five days or more to receive her official ‘badge’ before she could begin to engage in so-locally-called ‘questing’, from which she could earn coin. Although, she was given assurance that it could be ready by as little as tomorrow or overmorrow. Nevertheless, with respect to the Collegium’s many years-long demands and commitments, this was…obviously a significantly faster path to making coin, never mind much less costly and not requiring relocation.

  Likewise, given what she had been told regarding this Guild and its so-called ‘quests’, there was…perhaps something…intrinsically intriguing about them to her, regarding what they conceptually were.

  Indeed… In many ways, these ‘quests’ seemed to be just…mandates, directives, and ordinances; missions with clearly defined objectives… In absence of anything else similar, these ‘quests’ certainly seemed to be so… So… Something. Something that…tingled and pulsed in such an absurdly bizarre way that made her…enticed and… interested. Something yearning to be thoroughly scratched.

  Things, indeed, were so much easier when matters, importances, grander priorities, and the like were defined for her.

  Nevertheless, there was something about that Guild that…felt strange. On one hand, there was a strange feeling of…warmth or something that she got from it; a vague and spurious familiarity within this alien place, largely from its standardized complexities and uniformed organization. Yet on the other hand, precisely from such…sensations, did she have reason to feel…suspicious and slightly guarded.

  Indeed, both complex and advanced in its administrational practices and organizational customs, this Guild seemed rather…incongruent with everything else she had observed thus far in this primitive land; a structured and systematized bureaucracy… She could not help but feel that…there was more to this Adventurers’ Guild than met the eye; than was being implied. And she still did not know how that spy of a patron played into this at all, nor what his interests were in having her do any of this to begin with…

  Yet, in spite of all of that…

  She sighed ever-so faintly, cogitating and contemplating as she so continued her walking stroll, gripping more tighter the grips of her handbag in hand. Something within her mind’s isolated and quarantined shadow so beckoned, so yearned and pleaded, desperate for even the vaguest sense of familiarity and normalcy; itching and edging her closer towards that certain direction.

  Indeed, perhaps against better judgement and intuition, she made her decision: she will…continue down this path and become this ‘adventurer’ or whatever, to see where it might lead…if anywhere at all.

  -|||-

  Early. It was rather early in the morning, the sun having only barely risen though it had, at the least, risen nevertheless. The space around was still somewhat dark, not all of the sources of light having been ignited on; it was also rather empty, almost eerily so… For adventurers—and even other receptionists for that matter—did not typically arrive this early in the morning.

  Yet there that same receptionist of the day before stood behind that same main counted, her recently awoken morning eyes observing with gentle bewilderment as a certain alien of a girl so stumbled upon in at an hour none reasonably should. “Oh! Hey you! Wow… You sure…came early…” she nevertheless greeted with an enthusiastic charm, though perhaps one slightly awkward.

  “Hello! I greet you!” the foreigner greeted similarly with her own charm while she waved a hand, that entry door shutting behind. Her mask-obscured eyes scanned around as she approached, having immediately realized… “It is, uhm… It is very the empty here… Did I…come too early?” she asked as she halted before that main counter.

  “Well… I mean…” The receptionist’s demeanor was slightly awkward… “When I said that…it could be possible your badge might be ready…today, I did not mean that it would be ready…literally by the dawn of this today, so…” She ahemed; “And our earliest operating hours are typically the time we use to…get things readied…and prepare for the day ahead; so, even though we are technically open, our adventurers do not…usually appear until midmorning, when the sun is a little less than midway before noon.”

  “So…the answer is yes, then? That I did arrive too much early.” the foreigner stated.

  “Yeah…” the receptionist somewhat awkwardly confirmed.

  The foreigner sighed… “Well, that is fine… I will wait, then… Until this ‘badge’ for me is readied…” Such was what she had already been doing, frankly.

  Indeed, she was…not necessarily able to sleep the night before, her mind having been entrapped by its own cogitating shadow, her chest having been ensnarled by strange…tingling sensations of incomprehensible…feelings of…something, all of which denied her mind any ability to properly sleep despite the exhaustion and…admitted desire. Such was why she had even arrived so early; by the time the general populace of this settlement was waking up and readying themselves, she herself was already well prepared and well readied.

  “Well, actually…” The receptionist’s voice drifted… “You are with Fortune’s luck! We, or I, happened to—”

  Abruptly, before her words could finish, a door behind so flung open as another dark-blue vested receptionist so stumbled out; her hair was messy, her eyes slightly baggy; in her hands was a stack of sheets and papers which she so promptly plopped straight onto that counter. “Ugghh…” so bemoaned this peculiar one’s breaths aloud… “The quest department really ought to have a warning sign telling us when they’ve decided to stack up… I didn’t wake up this early in morning to heavy labor…”

  “…it is just paper…” The receptionist peered down at her whimpering other who so had slumped down and over as if terribly exhausted.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Yet her peer so lanced her eyes up and at her; “Yeah, maybe! But just take a gander at my swiggly lady arms…” She sarcastically flapped her arms somewhat; “I’m so delicate and weak…”

  “…” the receptionist just stared…

  “…hey, once you work as a proper-vest for as long as I have, these stupid quest stacks will break you from the sight alone… Seriously, how many platinums do you wanna bet half of this chunk are duplicate collection quests from United Trade?” the peer frankly replied, standing herself up, dropping the theatrics. Though she immediately let out yet another lamenting breath as she popped her head out from that counter and gazed down in the direction of the social hub. “What an easy job she must have… All she’s gotta do is look pretty, serve beer, and chit-chat…and nap whenever no one else’s around…”

  Indeed, besides these two, the only other receptionist seemingly present within this section of the Guild hall was the red-vested social hub receptionist, who was noticeably napping away upon her station.

  “Unfortunately, there is not a pretty nail within you…” the receptionist so remarked to her peer, her voice by no means hostile.

  “Hey! Meanie!” Her peer immediately protested, her voice’s…unserious tone matching the receptionist’s own; “Pfft! You’re gonna make me cry!”

  “I have never seen you cry once since I started here…” the receptionist merely remarked.

  “And I’ve seen you crying in the backroom at least ten times this week…” Her peer smirked with a snicker.

  “It was once!” the receptionist, now becoming embarrassed slightly, promptly countered.

  “One or one ‘nd an extra zero, what’s the difference? What’re even numbers, anyhow? They sound made up.” the peer so casually replied; “Anyhowhow, who might this be, then?” Her eyes finally attended to the foreigner who so stood in place, silent and patiently waiting for these two to finish this…whatever of theirs.

  “Oh,” the receptionist sprung slightly, “she is our recent little newbie! She is the one I admitted yesterday…”

  “Ahh…” The peer leaned against the counter as she so casually peered at the foreigner… “Interesting, interesting… A fancy mask one, aye? Don’t tell me you’ve got guns hiding somewhere on you, missy.” Her demeanor and voice were not necessarily as ‘professional’ as the receptionist’s. Her posture retracked as she turned her eye to the receptionist; “Well, anyway… Don’t want to keep you two hanging; I’ll handle the quest board.”

  The receptionist, however, did not feel comfortable… “Oh, really? You sure about that… I can still—”

  “No, no… I can handle it. You handle this, since that’s what you’d prefer to do, no?” Her peer picked up the stack of quests. “You stayed overnight, didn’t you? So excited and—”

  “Alrightly, just pin the quests already, please…” the receptionist so interjected.

  “Tehe, gotcha, gotcha, boss… Hehehe, look at you!” Snickering, her peer thus departed with a wave; “You two get along, then!”

  Sighing, the receptionist’s attention finally returned to that silent foreigner, still standing idly by… “I am very sorry about that! It may not seem so, but that one is my…supervising other!”

  “I see…” Well, those two certainly seemed quite cordial and mutually trusting. Regardless, however… “But, so… What was it that you were saying?” the foreigner thus inquired.

  “Huh?” The receptionist tilted her head before…immediately remembering; “Oh, rightly!” With a smile and shiny key, she promptly unlocked and opened a drawer, placing in rapid succession onto the counter…an object wrapped in some kind of protective cloth as well as a small and portable card of sorts—one smooth and…aesthetically ‘Guild’, so to speak. “Here are both your Copper badge and your very own Guild card!”

  “Already?” The foreigner tilted her head; “But I thought that—”

  “I had everything processed and sorted out for you last night!” the receptionist interposed with a cheer; “You seemed eager, so… I wanted to make sure things happened speedily…” There was a strange but split-second delay… “But, yeah, you are now officially a registered and active adventurer of this Guild branch! Congratulations!” She smiled.

  “Oh, I see, then… I give the thanks…” The foreigner placed her handbag onto the counter before first taking that Guild card into her hands, evaluating it…

  The material of this card was hard, stiff, and thick for what should be paper… Seemingly durable and hardy… Peculiar and qualitied, indeed. It had all of the essential details regarding her registered identity as an adventurer, such as her name, current rank, as well as the specific Guild hall and ‘branch’ with which she was associated. For such a small card, it was rather information dense. There was a unique sequence of letters and numbers present as well… Most likely an identifier code assigned to her.

  Placing her Guild card back onto the counter, she promptly unwrapped that cloth and revealed her Copper-rank badge, taking it into hand to inspect…

  Her registered Guild name had been engraved so neatly and thoroughly onto it with great skill and precision, almost as if a laser had done it. Likewise, engraved in a circle around her name was, again, a unique identifier code of numbers and letters.

  She felt this badge in her palm, touching it with her fingers. Cold, pristine, and newly shiny; elaborate and once again aesthetically behooving this ‘Guild’… However, compared to those badges she had seen of those apparent ‘Silver-rank’ adventurers, this badge was ultimately dull, stale, and bland… Befitting, indeed, the lowest of ranks. Although the shiny metallic coloring was copper-esque, the actual metallic compound that composed it was clearly not copper.

  Indeed, all adventurer badges were made from the same Guild-exclusive metallic compound of which they kept a guarded secret, varying only in thematic color, stylized shininess, and degrees of design sophistication dependent on the rank which the badge designated.

  “Now then!” the receptionist began to speak with a gentle sideways clap, the foreigner’s attention immediately flipping to her; “You must keep both your badge and your Guild card with you at all times whenever acting as an adventurer; this is both Guild policy and…the laws and ordinances of most realms who…still recognize our operations, including the County of Coastfield.”

  “Uhuh… I see” the foreigner acknowledged.

  “In particular,” the receptionist continued, “the Guild card should ideally be kept in a dedicated and easy-to-access satchel, pouch, or other related equipment of carrying—somewhere on you in event that it is required. And, although not mandatory, it is highly recommended that you wear your badge directly on your person, either by…affixing it to your attire or armor—which it is designed for—or by attaching it to a string or other means to wear around your neck or collar—which it is also designed for.”

  “And what if one is not able to do…that? To wear the badge, I mean…” the foreigner inquired.

  “Then you should keep it in the same dedicated equipment of carrying as your Guild card.” the receptionist quickly answered; “However, you should only do that if you are absolutely unable wear that badge… Such as, you know, full-armor constraints and other whatnots… But, again, it is highly recommended that find some way to keep that badge visible to others.” she reiterated. “Otherwise, you might find yourself constantly interrogated.”

  “It is goodly noted… I shall wear this badge, then…” the foreigner thus acknowledged, promptly pinning the badge to her chest area, approximately near where her heart was located since…that was the spot that came naturally to her for an important identifier; the badge remained quite firmly affixed to her attire, as if utterly stuck in place… Interesting.

  Regardless, she then quickly placed her Guild card into her small waist-satchel; the card fit well enough without denting the corners, though she might have to invest in a…more adequately sized carry satchel.

  The receptionist ahemed; “Well, anyway! With that all done, you are now free to go ahead and select your first quest from the quest board, and well before anyone else has arrived to hog the board or scoff at a new Copper! Lucky you!” She smiled with enthusiasm; “And hopefully you remembered…everything I detailed yesterday, since I…do not…want to explain them again…”

  “Do not be with worry, I do remember!” Broadly, at least…

  “Goodly heard!” The receptionist then eyed the large and wide quest board…

  The receptionist’s peer was still pinning the nascently received quests onto it, rather skillfully fast too; however, as this peer did so, her eyes had been tacitly eyeing those two at the main counter…as if remaining awfully watchful and suspecting, something the foreigner had picked up on but had opted to ignore.

  “You will have to wait until she is finished, of course, but…” The receptionist’s eyes returned to the foreigner… “I guess to say… Uhm… I recommend you stay strictly within your rank-range, since you are fresh and new and…no amount of explaining from me will prepare you to navigate yourself through…how this stuff works. It is a learn-by-experience ordeal, and small steps are the best steps…” Her voice was earnest and sincere.

  The foreigner nodded her head; “Goodly noted…” Her mask-obscured glanced at that wall of a quest board… A strange feeling entered her being, one that only became stranger and more…weird…the longer she stared… As if she had to resist being magnetically to drawn to that that board of mission-like things and objectives to be done… Task to be completed…

  Indeed, her leg jittered ever-slightly more. She wanted to know what could be on that board.