Once Nine was inside the guild, he found the smell of sweat and blood much harsher than outside.
Along with the loud conversation between the people eating on the corner, and people talking about what the next quest they should take is.
Looking around the guild to find where he could apply to become one, he found a single male receptionist besides the beautiful female receptionists.
Seeing how this lane consists of people around the age of 15-17, he knew this was the lane where he needed to go to apply as an adventurer. Without wasting any time, he made his way to this lane and lined up.
As he waited for his turn to come, he found that the people within the same line had a weapon on them, unlike him, who only had a hammer to his name.
Thinking about he wondered if he should have brought a weapon first before going here.
Remembering how the system told him to proceed to this, he brushed it off and waited quietly for his turn, along with listening to the talk of the people around him.
Ten to fifteen minutes later, Nine was the next one; he just needed to wait for the person signing up as an adventurer, and he would be the next one to do.
As soon as the previous one finished, he was welcomed by the male receptionist. The receptionist had blond hair, blue eyes, and a sharp jawline that made Nine think of him as the ideal man.
Introducing himself, Nine sat on the chair, fixed his posture, and stretched out his hand for a handshake. After confirming what he wanted to do in this place, Nine stopped talking, allowing the receptionist to talk.
The receptionist smiled for a moment before he started. "Welcome to the adventurer guild Mister Nine. From the way you introduced yourself, I guess that you already know how to read and write"
The receptionist slammed down a paper before Nine, then continued: "But, if you don't, please allow me to do it, since you might have a hard time doing it."
His voice was calm, like a gentle, cold breeze of air brushing off your skin in a grassy plain, yet it carried rudeness within it, hiding it in his tone.
Nine could tell that the receptionist wanted him to admit that he could not read and to boost his confidence back from what he did to him earlier.
'He wants me to admit that I'm illiterate so he can get his confidence back since I didn't let him talk earlier? Joke's on you, I'm shameless. Admitting such a thing won't make me embarrassed at all.' Finishing this thought, Nine started:
"Embarrassed as I am, please help me with this..." Nine lock eyes with him and smile a bit before erasing it. "You're nothing but a worker in here." Then flipped the paper toward the receptionist.
Nine voices were like a calm blooming flower, but to the receptionist, the end of that blooming shot out bullets of fire that burned him.
From the perspective of those behind Nine, it appeared they were just having a conversation. However, to the two of them, a subtle war of mockery was unfolding without any explicit curses or insults.
Annoyed by how Nine said the last part after smiling at him, the receptionist grabbed a pen and prepared himself to start writing, then he began asking Nine.
"Name, age, gender?"
"Nine, 17, and figured out the last part on your own will you?" He said, mockingly. "What? Can't tell what my gender is on your own?" Annoying the receptionist more.
Writing it down, the receptionist continued: "Well then, please—" Before he could even finish his words, Nine placed his hand on the marble tablet on the side of the table.
"Ah.. don't worry I already know how this works. I was watching earlier. Just list down what you want from it and end this as soon as possible."
The tablet where Nine placed his hand is called a [Status tablet]. A drop item within a dungeon that allowed one to see a specific part of one's status window.
The one that the receptionist has allowed him to see Nine stats and skills. This is one of the procedure that one need to complete to become an adventurer. This is also a way to tell what rank they should give them.
Reading, Nine status, the receptionist smiled for a bit before swiping away the details on it. "Please hand over your Identity template, so we can proceed to making you an official member of the guild."
Nine looked up for a bit before putting his hand in his pocket. And secretly summoning his identity template from the bracelet he had.
"Here." Nine said, giving it to the receptionist. Grabbing his template, the receptionist placed it on top of the status tablet and sent out mana to it.
Ten seconds later, the receptionist gave Nine his identity template back. He smiled for a moment before loudly announcing:
"Welcome to the adventurer guild, Mister Nine. Normally, everyone starts at E-Rank. Since you didn't meet the requirements for this rank, you will be F-rank only."
The receptionist felt relieved saying those words. Finally, he had said something. Nine couldn't answer back. With him being a F-Rank only when everyone else was already at E-Rank when they applied, he knew this was gonna be embarrassing for Nine to take.
Then Nine asked something, his voice was still the same as before, as if he was not embarrassed at all: "Can I know what the requirements for E-Rank are?"
"Huh?" The receptionist was confused; he was not embarrassed by being known as an F-Rank only when everyone else was one rank higher than him. Still, as a worker of this guild, he answered the question of Nine.
"I see, thanks." Nine said smiling at the information he just got, after being taught what the requirements for the E-Rank were.
Seeing that even loudly announcing Nine's rank to embarrass him did nothing, the receptionist smiled, accepting his pathetic actions, and grabbed some quest paper under his table.
"Sorry for what I did earlier. I seem to have lost my composure when you did not mean to be rude or anything." He stood from his position and bowed down, then continued.
"I know that you might not take any of this, but please take one of these quests as a way of my saying sorry. Each of these quests will earn you much more money than the one posted on the board."
Nine look at him, before saying: "No thanks."
"I see, of course, you won't take one. Why did I even think of this?" The receptionist's pride was hurt, not because Nine said no to him, but because he knew he had ruined the reputation of the receptionists' guild.
The receptionist upholds a reputation for being friendly to everyone. They simply do their work without putting their emotion or opinions into it.
So every single one of them simply acts nice to everyone, whether they are a different race, young or old, male or female, polite or rude, big or small, slim or wide.
But instead, he let his pride get the best of him and tried to embarrass Nine. Yet even with all of that, Nine did not yell out or curse him; instead, he asked what the requirements for E-Rank were.
"Wait! I'm not saying no because of what you did." Nine voices were quick. "I'm saying no, because I don't plan to move around today, I'm too tired right now. I just plan to apply as one today, explore around the town, and do my first quest tomorrow. So, don't feel bad about it."
"I see..." The receptionist said, fixing his posture and looking up. Seeing how everyone's attention was going towards them, Nine quickly grabbed 5 silver coins in his pocket and placed them on the table.
Then quickly prepared himself to run away. "Thanks for the service, here's the fees. So, bye!" Saying those words, he ran away from there and started exploring the town.
***
Chapter 2 ends.